Best Deceptions
by shirozora
Summary: Sora's life has been misery but he's managed to hide it from his friends, especially his best friend Kairi. But when he could no longer hide his secrets, what will become of their friendship? DISCONTINUED
1. When Nightmare Came Calling

**Author's Note:** This is my first attempt at updating without any other chapters waiting to be uploaded on a schedule. Well, that goes for **Rain of Sorrows**, too, but not really. Inspired by _James and the Giant Peach_, the great classic by Roald Dahl, and "Your Boyfriend Sucks" by The Ataris.

Basic Summary: Until he was four, Sora Hamasaki lived in literal paradise by the beach with his parents. But a suspicious disaster leaves him far from home with two aunts who abuse him and refuse to let him go to the beach of his childhood. But in the fourth grade, he meets a friend who refuses to ignore him as others had done – Kairi Nomura. They remained best friends until high school, when Sora's life begins to unravel and Kairi's relationship with Riku Shimomura begins to distort out of shape. The harder they try to hide their secrets, the harder it is to remain friends.

**Best Deceptions**

**When Nightmare Came Calling**

I was four when my parents died.

I used to live by the beach, in a large sky-blue house. Every day I went down to the beach and played in the waves. Every night I stared out the window in my bedroom and watched the moonlight glitter on the sea. And on weekends my parents would take me to the group of islands off the shore, where we would play and have a picnic.

They called it Destiny Islands.

For so long I was happy. Sometimes, though, I'd see my mom look at me sadly, and I wouldn't know why. But then she'd give me a smile and I knew life was good. Oh yes, life was good.

My friend was Riku Shimomura, who was a year older than me and already going to school. He too lived by the sea, in a huge white marble house. He had three houses but was living in his beach house when I first met him. Sometimes he was tough; other times he was the best friend I had. Sometimes he'd come with me and my parents to Destiny Islands, where we'd swim, spar with sticks, and eat my mom's sandwiches.

I haven't seen him since my parents died.

I don't know what happened; nobody would explain it to me. But from what I heard, they were driving over a bridge from who-knows-where when the car broke down and swerved into the deep river down below. My grandmother, who was watching over me that day, died soon after of a broken heart.

I hadn't been to the sea since my parents died.

City officials sold the house and sent me to my last relatives, my father's sisters. They lived in a tall, rickety house on a tall, tall hill. You could see the whole of our city if you were watching from the window in the attic. They had a garden and grew many vegetables; Aunt Sponge loved to eat.

My room was the attic, the coldest room at night, and the highest room in their house. The lights never worked right and the door locks from the outside. Sometimes at night, I'd sneak over to the window from my bed and peek out the small window: I could still see the moonlight shine on the ocean but it was a speck. During the day the ocean was a thin dark blue line and the beach a white line. On clear days I could still see that sky-blue house I used to live in.

Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker never called me by name. I was either " you boy" or "come here you miserable wretch" or "you disgusting little bastard"; when they were nice, they'd simply say "you." From the day I came to them I was made to clean the house every day and do all their chores. I never complained; the only time I cried Aunt Spiker beat me with her belt and Aunt Sponge said the next time I cried I would be thrown into the basement with the rats as my company.

As I got older, I gradually took over all the chores and jobs around the house. Everyday I cleaned the house, did the laundry, took out the garbage, made my aunts dinner, and cleaned up after them. Every weekend I was working in their garden, making sure the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots grew well for Aunt Sponge.

I never left the house, except when I entered kindergarten. From then on, I walked to school and came back immediately. My aunts came home from their jobs at 5. Aunt Sponge worked in the local bakery; Aunt Spiker worked at one of several banks in the city. They told me they expected me to have the house cleaned by the time they came home; if I wasn't done, I'd be sleeping with rats for a month.

I've been living like this for twelve years.

Until fourth grade at James G.P. Elementary School, I never had a friend. I never stayed around people; during recess and lunch, I'd eat alone and play with the tetherball all by myself, humming made-up tunes. People looked at me weird; sometimes the bigger kids would walk by me and hit my head or push me to the ground. But I never cried; if I cried, I knew they'd hurt me more. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker always hurt me.

Until fourth grade, I was no one.


	2. Someone Held Out Her Hand

**Author's Note:** This is a two-part prologue-chapters. Basically, they're prologues and yet chapters. I got both of them done and uploaded immediately; prologues aren't usually meant to be long but this IS long. If you've read my previous work, don't kill me for starting another story. You can blame my cousin for influencing my taste of music; seriously, music is such an inspiration it can be murder!

**Summary:** Until he was four, Sora Hamasaki lived in literal paradise by the beach with his parents. But a suspicious disaster leaves him far from home with two aunts who abuse him and refuse to let him go to the beach of his childhood. But in the fourth grade, he meets a friend who refuses to ignore him as others had done – Kairi Nomura. They remained best friends until high school, when Sora's life begins to unravel and Kairi's relationship with Riku Shimomura begins to distort out of shape. The harder they try to hide their secrets, the harder it is to remain friends.

**Best Deceptions**

**Someone Held Out Her Hand**

" Hello class, my name is Mrs. Blumfield," our fourth grade teacher smiled as she stood at the front of the classroom. Twenty fourth graders were staring back; I naturally sat near the back, in my own little world.

She wasn't old but she wasn't young. She had a smile, slightly graying mouse brown hair and that nasal voice that makes you sleepy. But her smile was too nice.

" These will be your seats for the year," she was saying, standing in front of the chalkboard. " I want you to sit next to someone new; it's not fair to leave people out, is it?"

Someone shouted out, " What if we know everyone?"

" Young man, it is rude to shout. When you want to say something, please raise your hand," Mrs. Blumfield said to the redhead boy. Wakka Bekshi. He was actually one of the nicer ones; he generally left me alone, unlike most others. " Now, some of us are new to the school this year. I want you to be extra nice to them. Once I take attendance, I will have everyone new to the school stand up in their seats. One of you who has been here before will show them around and be their first school friend. Okay? Okay…Donald Alba? Present and up front…er…Grumpy Arble? Right…there you are…Betty Atara…"

Sooner or later she'd get to my name. And then I'll be passed over, just one of many students in the fourth grade class in the fourth grade in James G.P. Elementary School.

"…Mickey Disney…Jiminy Genova…"

Someone sits next to me. I don't know who. I can't know. The bigger boys in the fourth grade will pick on those who are nice to me. They just haven't gone around to finding Wakka.

"…Sora Hamasaki?"

" Here," I heard myself whisper. The louder I am, the more attention I get.

" What? I can't hear you. Louder, please." She wants me to speak up. Why?

" I said I'm here," I said quietly, looking down at my desk. The brown swirls were so interesting-

" Sora Hamasaki, please look up and speak clearly," Mrs. Blumfield said loudly, her nasal voice changing.

" I-I don't want to."

Snickers. They're laughing at me! Why did she have to pick on me? Now the bigger kids are going to hear of it. They'll never leave me alone-

" Hm…very well, We'll work on that, Sora. Peter Highfoot? Okay…"

I stared at the desk. People were still laughing at me.

" I don't know why they're laughing. They're so _mean_."

I blinked. Did the person next to me just say that? Should I look?

" But why won't you look up?"

" There's something on the desk," I said dully. An excuse would do just fine-

" There's nothing on the desk, silly," the person next to me said.

" I know…"

"…Kairi Nomura?"

" Here!" the person next to me said loudly and cheerfully. Wow, how could she be so happy answering to the teacher and having people stare at her? When Aunt Sponge looks at me, she wants the garden done. When Aunt Spiker looks at me, I have to clean the house from the attic to the basement all over again. When Pete Coulter looks at me, I skin my knee.

" Another of our new students!" Mrs. Blumfield smiled, marking her roll book. " So far we have Yuffie Kisaragi and Kairi Nomura. Next…"

She went on with the attendance. Class, I knew, was fidgeting. When you're this quiet, you notice things more. If I didn't learn early on, I would've gotten the belt. And the rats.

" So you're Sora and I'm Kairi, right?" the girl next to me smiled. " Well, that was a stupid thing to say. Of course I'm Kairi! So, your last name's Hamasaki? My dad used to have a friend whose last name was Hamasaki. When he talked on the phone, I always heard him saying "Hamasaki this…" and Hamasaki that…". My dad's very important; he makes games for big kids. When I get older, he's going to let me play some of his games. Do you have any games you like to play?"

" No," I mumbled. How can she talk like that?

"…Tidus Reeves…Gary Remue-"

" Teacher, Teacher!"

" Yes Gary?"

" People call me Goofy!"

" Okay…Goofy. Daisy Rhea…"

" How can you not have games you like to play?" she asked curiously.

" I just don't," I said, making circles under the table with my fingers.

" Oh…why's your hair like that?"

" My hair?" What was she talking about?

" It's so…spiky. I've never seen hair spiky like yours. How'd you do that?"

" I don't. That's just how it always was," I muttered. Why won't she stop talking?

Something poked my hair. I looked up. Bad mistake.

" I got you to look up," the girl next to me giggled.

Kairi Hamasaki had short red hair and big blue eyes. She was wearing a long white dress and had a purple backpack. It looked brand new.

Something poked my hair again. It was her. She poked at my longest spike. " It's not that funny stuff my dad sometimes uses. So how do you get your hair to stand up like that?"

" I, uh…"

"…Mina Silva…"

" You should smile," she said. " Everyone smiles."

" Smile?" What's a smile? The look on Aunt Sponge's face after she finishes dinner? When Aunt Spiker counts her pay? When Pete breaks my pencil?

" It's like you've never been happy," Kairi giggled again.

"…Kairi, please be quiet during roll."

" Sorry Mrs. Blumfield," she said quietly. She bit her lip. I stared.

" Why do you do that?"

" Do what?"

" Bite your lip?"

" Like this?" She did it again. That's what Aunt Spiker always did when she found something dissatisfactory.

" Yeah, that."

" I don't know," she said with a shrug. " I just do. Dad calls it 'habit'."

" Oh…"

"…and Ansem Zane. Well, this will be one interesting class. Okay then…Yuffie Kisaragi, Kairi Nomura, Shawn Owens, Haley Quincy, Tidus Reeves, Sessho-Sesshou-"

" It's Sesshoumaru, Mrs. Blumfield."

" Right, sorry. Sesshoumaru Samatoya, Mina Silva, and Parker Yeates, will you all please stand."

Great. Everyone looks at those standing. They look at Kairi, they look at me. I don't need any attention.

" Rest of you have been here before. These are our new students. They don't know where things are. I would like someone to volunteer to become a buddy for one of them today and show them the school. Who'd like to be a buddy for Yuffie?"

Three hands. All girls. The one hand that was waving like a windmill belonged to Selphie Tilmitt, the crazy girl in the yellow shirt and skirt. She was the school's jump rope champion. Every recess and lunch she played with the jump rope.

" Selphie, will you like to be Yuffie's buddy today?"

" Yes!"

The two other girls – they laugh whenever Pete pushed me – pouted as they put their hands down.

" Yuffie, I want you to sit next to Selphie. Um…and you are?"

" Wakka."

" Oh yes, you, please exchange seats with Yuffie. Alright, who wants to be a buddy for Kairi-"

" Mrs. Blumfield? Can I choose my buddy?"

Mrs. Blumfield looked startled, Now _everyone_ was looking at her. Me, too.

" Dear, you don't know-"

" Can Sora be my buddy?"

What!

I stared at her. Everyone was looking at me. She was smiling.

" Oh very well. You two sit next to each other anyways…now, Shawn Owens…"

She sat back down, looking quite happy. Did she have any idea what she did to me?

" Well, now you'll have to show me this school, huh?"

What do I say? Sorry but I don't want to be found around you? What if we become friends and my aunts find out? What I fall in love – ew, gross! – with her? What if we get married? Have kids? Take them down to the…

"…the sea…" I sighed. She'd won. The teacher had won. I lost.

''

" Wow, so many kids," was Kairi's first comment as she followed me out of the classroom. Our class was in the bungalows to the west of the school. Across the blacktop was the jungle gym, the other school buildings and the covered eating area. There was another one attached to the cafeteria. If you were fourth grade or up, you don't eat there. Only little babies eat there. It's an unspoken law and even the yard aides abide by that.

" It's a school," I muttered, staring at the ground. If I look up, one of the bigger kids was bound to do me one. Oh look, a white line. I had entered kickball territory. I ran as fast as I can.

"…Hey Sumner, kick the ball! Let's see if we hit that little runt!" I heard one of the fifth graders yell. Then I heard the sound of the toe of a shoe hit a rubber soccer ball.

The ball landed right next to me and bounced away. They missed.

" Hey, that's not nice!" Kairi yelled. " Pick on someone your own size!"

I heard laughter. Great, what was Kairi doing now? I turned around, ready for the fifth graders to push me and throw the ball at me.

" Where's the fun in that, you little girl? Now give us the ball and go play with your school friend."

Kairi was holding the ball. She didn't look happy. The fifth grader talking to her was a big kid named Zack. Zack Zacharias, to be exact. I looked at Kairi. Was she going to throw the ball at him, hoping to hit him? Or was she going to roll it and just-

Kairi turned and threw it as hard as she can in the direction of the bungalows.

" Hey!" Zack yelled, running now. The ball was far, far away now and Kairi was laughing as she walked up to me.

" That was fun!"

I shook my head. " If they tell a yard aide, you'll be in big trouble, you know."

" That's okay," she said cheerfully as we got near the jungle gym. " I'll just tell them they were mean to you."

" They won't believe you."

" How do you know."

" I just do."

The big jungle gym had like five slides and a whole bunch of things to climb over. And around were people trying to copy Selphie at jump ropes, especially Yuffie, and Wakka showing Tidus where to play handball.

I went to the yellow pole where you climb onto and spin around upside down if you want. But Kairi went up to the head yard aide who was handing out a red handball to Mickey, who was showing around Mina. I climbed onto the yellow pole and sat on it, wondering what she was going to say.

"…kicked the ball at him, wanting to hit him…"

Oh no!

" Okay. They're not supposed to do that to other people here on the yard. Where are they again?"

Kairi pointed to Zack and his fifth grader friends, who were busy trying to hit a group of third graders walking through the kickball field.

" Thank you."

Kairi nodded, then skipped over to where I was sitting on the yellow pole. I glared at her. " Why'd you tell him that?"

" Someone had to do something."

" Hey you!" the head yard aide was walking towards them. They stared up at him, surprised. The third graders took the chance to run as fast as they could away from the field. " You five come with me. There's a little something I want to talk to you about…"

" They're going to the principal!" Someone yelled. Sounds like Wakka. " They're gonna get benched!"

" What?"

" No way!"

" Finally!"

" Cool!"

Suddenly everyone was staring at the head yard aide and the five fifth graders walking with him. One of them, Zack, was looking at _me_. He looked mad.

" Well, serves them right," Kairi smiled. Then she saw Wakka and Tidus. " Hey guys, can we join?"

Wait, we?

" Yeah, sure!" Wakka smiled as Tidus bounced the ball. " C'mon, Sora!"

I was happily spinning and having blood rush into my head, thank you very much. Every recess that's what I did when the tetherballs were taken. I was the only one playing with those horizontal yellow sticks, especially when the tetherball courts were taken. Nobody else did.

" Let's go," Kairi smiled. I was still sitting on the pole when she grabbed my hand and pulled me off.

" Hey!" I yelled, stumbling as I hit the rubber bottom. " You could hurt someone-"

" But you're not hurt!" Kairi giggled. " C'mon!"

Wakka the crazy redhead and Tidus, the blond new kid, were waiting for us when we joined them next to the wall of a classroom building.

" Let's go easy on her, ya?" Wakka suggested while Tidus kept bouncing the ball. I stood there staring at my rundown shoes, feeling so out-of-place.

" Hey I can play tough, too!" Kairi whined. " I play football with Dad. You know those egg-shaped brown thingies?"

" Yeah," Tidus nodded. " My older brother Seymour plays with that with his friends. Those things hurt!"

" You have to know how to catch them," Kairi said airily. " Dad showed me how. He also taught me how to play handball."

" My dad does blitzball!" Tidus said proudly. " He's a champ! He's got so many gold trophies-"

" Yeah well, my dad plays blitzball, too!" Wakka contested hotly. " He, um…doesn't have any trophies, though…"

Oh look, I just lost my buddy. So much for the idea of showing the new kid around school. I started inching away. No point being here now; she's probably forgotten me already-

" Sora, let's play handball!"

" What?"

All three of them were looking at me. Tidus held out the red ball.

" You serve."

""

I had to admit, if it weren't for Kairi, I probably would've finished elementary school without any friends. As it was, the four of us played handball all through recess. And lunch. And the next day. And the day after that. And for the rest of the year.

Yuffie got tired of jump rope and joined us, too. So did Selphie; they became friends but Selphie suddenly didn't want to jump rope by herself anymore. So it was the six of us playing handball.

Then Yuna ben-Braska, the quiet smart girl in our class, asked if she could play. Soon it was the seven of us playing handball every day. We took over one of the handball courts, on the opposite side were Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Mina, and Daisy. So we were pounding at the wall with the red ball, running around, catching the other side's red ball and throwing it back, laughing, pushing, shouting, yelling…

Until the fourth grade, I never had a friend. By the end of fifth grade, I had six. That included my best friend, Kairi Nomura.

It turned out she lived down the street from the hill where I lived. So every day I'd go to her house after school and stay until four thirty. I'd finish my homework by then so I came home to clean up the house before my aunts came. Usually we finished our homework early so we went around her backyard with her dog Pluto, while her mom, who was really nice, made snacks.

I wish I had an aunt or a mom like that, instead of two aunts who were always angry when I had a smile on my face.

After a while I stopped smiling. How can I, when Aunt Spiker threatens me with the belt? I only smiled at school.

Then I stopped smiling completely when I first got into middle school. That was when I first heard of the word "districts".

It turned out I lived in a completely different district from all my other friends. My house was the end of my district; that meant I was enrolled to one middle school while all my other friends were enrolled into another. Why was nobody on my side?

H. Wells Middle School was notorious for its poor status and gangs. A lot of kids came from poor families; a lot of them formed gangs that went around taking lunch money from others. They were big, very big. They scared me.

I was alone. My best friend wasn't with me. She and our other friends were all going to Fates Middle School, which was supposedly a much better middle school than the one I was going to.

What was the use of switching schools? Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker would never let me switch schools.

After school we all met, anyways. Selphie and Yuffie had discovered a place called Paradise Beach Mall and they took us there. It was big. There were so many people and so many stores. It was like love from first sight. So every after school we met there, going around, eating and laughing and window-shopping (girls mainly). I wish I had enough money to buy what the others buy all the time. Well actually, I never had any money. The others had to pitch in to buy me a smoothie. And I always left at four thirty.

Nobody knew what Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker did to me. Not even my friends. Not even my best friend. She always said, " Let's not keep secrets between us." I wish I could tell her. But if I told her what my aunts did, would she want to stay with me any longer? Will she get scared and try to get away? I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to lose my friendship with her. She really was my only friend. And so I always smiled for her. Especially when she was biting her lips.

While I never made any friends, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Yuna, and Yuffie most certainly did. They met Naminé, Cloud, Rinoa, and Irvine. I met them once or twice when they brought them to the mall to meet with me. But who was I to know them? They're not my friends.

That was until Kairi told me she liked someone in the eighth grade. We were in seventh grade then and I was trying to hide my misery as best as I could.

" There's this really cute guy. I see him all the time at the eighth grade quad. I wonder if he notices me…"

" How could he not?" I demanded. " You're so pretty, Kairi. He's bound to notice you!"

" You think so?" she smiled, while somehow managing to bite her lip as well.

I nodded. She then squealed and practically strangled me with a hug.

" I'm so glad you're my best friend!"

" Yeah…me…too…geroff!"

The next day he approached her. After school, she pulled me aside while we were at the mall with our friends and Irvine and then she said, " He actually came up to me and asked me my name!"

" You told him?"

She nodded. I had never seen her so red. " His name's Riku! Riku Shimomura! Sigh…such a wonderful name…"

Riku Shimomura? Wait a minute…

" Sora, what's wrong?" Kairi asked, looking at me. She was worried; she knew that name was bothering me.

" It's…it's nothing."

" Oh c'mon, Sora. Remember? No secrets between us!" she countered, wagging her index finger in my face. " Spill it."

" Okay, okay…he just sounds like my childhood friend, that's all…"

"Same name?"

" Yes."

" Okay, the Riku at my school has silver hair, blue eyes, is tall, and gets straight A's in P.E. and every class he has. Sounds familiar?"

I stared at her. Just how did she find all that out? " Uh…the first two parts, yeah. How did you know all that?"

She grinned evilly. " Every girl in school's in love with him! So I just have to eavesdrop and…"

I shook my head. " Kairi, you're so evil…"

" I know," she said. It was like she was advertising that as a badge pinned to her shirt for the world to see. " How about this: I'll ask and see if he'll come with us to the mall tomorrow. See if he's the one I'm talking about."

What if it was the wrong Riku? Then what do I do? " What if…"

" What if what?"

"What if…what if he's not the Riku I'm talking about?"

" You silly, that's why I'm going to ask. If he comes, then I'll have you meet him and see if you two recognize each other. Okay?"

I sighed. What's the use? Might as well humiliate myself. " Okay…"

" Oh and Sora, it's almost four-thirty. Shouldn't you be getting home?"

" Oh! Oh my god! Gotta go! See you tomorrow! Bye!"

Riku? Riku Shimomura?

""

By the end of eighth grade, several things had taken place.

Aunt Spiker was promoted and now was more miserly than ever.

Aunt Sponge's bakery has gone national and she's making more money. And spending it on food and clothing, too. She's bloated.

Riku Shimomura was my friend from the beach. He doesn't live at the beach house anymore; now he lives at the one near Fates Middle School and Istara High School. He's got straight A's and had joined varsity in his freshman year at the high school. His dad has become famous as a composer but Riku said he didn't like his son playing sports. How weird. Since when did a parent care about who did what?

And he asked Kairi out.

It made no difference that he was a year older than her and he was going to a high school while we were still in middle school. I guess that's what love's all about. It's blind to all rules, as those people always say. They were always together, especially during our outings at the mall after school. Selphie thought it was romantic but Yuna ignored them. Yuffie made a whole scene out of the "mushiness" and at one point stopped the whole mall in its tracks. Wakka and Tidus busied themselves with talks of sports and what they're going to do once we join Riku at Istara. And me? I just followed around, answering when someone talked to me but generally making sure nothing funny happened between Kairi and Riku.

Nothing funny happened.

Then summer came. While everyone went to the beach or on vacation, I was out at the gardens every day, mulching and weeding and taking care of all the summer fruits and vegetables. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker would sit in the shade in their little beach chairs – we never went to the beach! – suntanning, drinking lemonade, and talking about such horrible things like how beautiful they were.

I'd say they look like hags. A fat one and a skinny one.

I wish we went to the sea. Ever since I moved to the hill I had never been to the ocean. It was just a glistening dark blue strip, reminding me of the first four years.

And then I'd stop working, trying to remember my parents. But how could I? It was so long ago…

" Get back to work you stupid bastard! My vegetables are dying!"

" Oh let him be, sister. That little brat's already overcooked as is. If he keels over dead from the sun, all the more for us."

" But I want my vegetables!"

They never called me by name. Ever.

Summer went. High school came. Istara High School was available to both districts so we all joined up again: Kairi, Riku, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Yuna, Yuffie, Naminé, Cloud, Rinoa, Irvine, and me. Riku was the only sophomore and he stood a head taller than everyone else. I'm pretty sure I'm finally catching up, though.

High school was intimidating. You have so many big people moving around, druggies, gangs, preps, cliques, losers, geeks, guitar players, couples, sluts, pimps, jocks, jerks, every human category possible. You even have girls carrying around their babies or holding hands with their three-year-olds. And the teachers…they cussed. They smelled of cigarettes. They were perverted. They were liberal. They were crazy. They were insane.

All the more to stay quiet and blend into the background. The more attention you have, the more enemies you gain,

Except Riku Shimomura. Everyone loved him. The teachers, the administrators, the teachers, the students, the coaches, the jocks, the rival schools, and even the janitors knew and respected him. A lot of the girls loved him. And why not; he played blitzball and was on the swim and basketball teams. Wakka and Tidus managed to get into varsity, too. Me? I don't play sports. I never learned how and I don't see any reason to. I'm still a skinny kid with crazy hair, right?

Even though Kairi was going out with Riku, I was her best friend. I was always her best friend, even when she became close with Naminé Llyt as well. That pretty blonde girl sometimes stared at me like she wanted me. That was scary as is.

Wakka met Lulu Reed, who was a crazy Goth girl with some zombie cactus doll. Halfway through ninth grade, she started carrying around a zombie Moogle doll. An she was always wearing black. How did she end up dating Wakka?

Being the neutral person in the group – along with Yuffie, who was achieving her goal of becoming a ninja by taking aerobics, gymnastics, karate, judo, kendo, tae kwon do, and kick-boxing classes – I also knew that Selphie liked Irvine, Tidus liked Yuna, Yuna liked Tidus, and Irvine liked Selphie. It wasn't like they were going to admit it to each other. Who would?

That went for Rinoa, too, when we met Squall. He was this tall, dark-haired kid in my Humanities classes, wearing what looked like black parkas without the hood but lots of white fake fur. He was really quiet and he always said, " Whatever." But Rinoa got friendly with him, progressed him past his one-word vocabulary, and dragged him into our group. But two things first. One, he likes to be called Leon, after a pet that died long ago. Two, he dragged in Aerith, too.

And there went Cloud.

Sometimes I feel so left out. Everyone seemed to have a happy life, with one or both parents who loved them, nice warm houses, their own rooms with their own computers, allowances, and freedom to do what they will. A lot of them were into sports or did well in class; they were also already earning community service hours and working.

Me?

My room was still the attic. I had a twin-sized bed with dirty white sheets, a walk-in closet, a desk, a chair, a wastebasket, and…that was it. The furniture. I had no computers, no air-conditioning, no heater, no radio, no clock, no phone, no television. I woke up when it got too cold, which was around six-thirty in the morning.

Over the summer, I met Cid Highwind, who owned an anything-you-want-is-here kind of store. I was buying groceries and I guess he thought it was weird I was buying so many…er…sanitary napkins, so he asked me. I told him everything except for what my aunts did to me, and he hired me on the spot. Just like that! I mean, how could I be a cashier? I had almost no experience with money or cash registers or people or earning pay! But he stuck me up front and said, " Earn ya some money or you're gonna be sorry…" and stomped off, leaving me at the mercy of the ten costumers who had lined up.

Summer went by. I worked at Cid's store from nine to four thirty. My aunts never knew. If they had, I would have been locked in my room for the rest of the summer. If they found my money, Aunt Spiker would've taken them away for "safe keeping".

I was lucky. They didn't know anything, suspected nothing, and never found out I bought a CD Player, a couple of CDs, and discovered there was a loose board under my bed. Now I had illegal music. There was illegal downloading; for me, owning music in general was illegal.

All that summer I rarely saw my friends. I didn't see Kairi much, either; she was spending a lot of time with Riku, Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie down at the beach. I heard she was staying at his beach house while the others lived near the beach, lucky them.

The others were busy with family, vacation, summer school, and jobs. So I was all alone, working for several hours a day, trying to hide the evidence from my aunts, and waiting to see Kairi again so we can start talking about music and my CDs. I mean, she has an iPod!

But summer had to end. We became sophomores, except for Riku, who became a junior.

If there was one thing I regretted saying, it was telling myself that love was blind to all rules and all laws. Love may be great, you say, but love was evil.

I should know. I never felt love, not in my fifteen years of existence. There was no love for me at home; the only love I felt was friendship at school.

I live without emotions.

I wonder what would've happened if Kairi had never asked Mrs. Blumfield if she could pick her school buddy.

**Author's Note:** End of the two-part prologue! Please read and review!


	3. Crimson and Clover

**Author's Note:** I'm so lucky I saved an extra copy of this story and was able to work on the rest of the chapter in a notebook. In any case, I read on Wikipedia some of the rules of and will comply with them. Meaning…no 'chatspeak' as someone has continuously warned me and I, to my idiotic ignorance, ignored. And other crap but here's the next chapter. Sorry for the wait. I will say this: I mentioned **James and the Giant Peach** by Roald Dahl because that book provided the inspiration, and the aunts Sponge and Spiker. Hence I give the deceased author credit.

Concerning copyrights: None of the characters are mine…yet, I believe. They either belong to Square-Enix and Disney, **James and the Giant Peach**, 'Good Will Hunting', or real people in my life. I also do not own the titles 'King Kong' and (obviously) 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'.

**Best Deceptions**

**1**

**Crimson and Clover**

" You ungrateful creature, clean this up at once!" Aunt Spiker barked at the spilt black coffee.

Sora Hamasaki sighed as he picked up a rag from the countertop next to the rusty sink and began to wipe away the warm liquid. Silently he cursed morning rush as he wiped away the liquid. He may have been wiping away, too hard; a bit of it splashed on Aunt Sponge's flabby arm. She slapped him on the face.

" Watch where you're spilling the coffee!" she barked in his ear.

Wincing, the brunet teenager hurriedly – and carefully – finished clearing up the coffee. He turned around, dropped the rag into the sink, and then proceeded to pour Aunt Spiker a fresh cup of black coffee.

" Get your ass out of here, you yellow bastard," she snapped as she took the cup from him.

Nodding, Sora left the kitchen, breathing a sigh of relief at the end of morning torture as he swung his black backpack onto his shoulder and headed out the door.

The teenager, who was wearing plenty of black, had a long way to go before he hit the actual street; his aunts' house lived at the tip of the hill and it took a good two minutes to get from one point to the other.

Sora rubbed his face where Aunt Sponge slapped him. It was the same spot as last time; why couldn't it have been the other cheek? Now it was stinging like crazy and felt awfully warm. There were no cuts, though…he hoped.

With a sigh, he shouldered his backpack to make himself relax as he trudged down the sidewalk towards Istara High School. The weather was gloomy; it seemed to match his mood as he crossed a street and was almost run over by a speeding Porsche.

Sora sighed as he continued down the sidewalk. The clouds had been gathering for some time but snow wasn't here. November meant snow but now it was nearing December.

Kairi's birthday…

Sora smiled, already bringing to mind the plan he and the others made. For each of their birthdays, the others strategized as to how to celebrate. Most people had it at the mall but sometimes they'd go visit a restaurant and occupy one long table, eating, drinking, laughing, chatting, making the most of it.

Since his aunts never gave him presents nor acknowledged the very existence of his birthday, he always looked forward to his. On his fifteenth birthday, which took place after all the finals and major tests were over, everyone headed to the theaters to watch a movie. That was the third time he'd been to a movie theater since he was born.

" What to give Kairi…" Sora mused as Istara came into view.

" Yo! Over here, man!" Wakka shouted and Sora ran towards the voice.

" Hey, what took you so long this time?" Tidus grinned as Irvine socked him one on the shoulder.

" Ow! Oh, I just made a mess eating breakfast and had to clean it up."

_Oh, I spilled my aunt's coffee, got slapped for making a big mess out of cleaning it up, and skipped breakfast for the tenth day in a row. At least I still have some money to buy lunch_-

" Hey, yo, did you do your homework, man?" Wakka asked, scratching his head some as he started pulling out papers from his backpack, which sat at his feet. His girlfriend Lulu was sitting on the bench next to him, petting her Moogle doll while staring off into the distance. Sora tried to follow her gaze…and saw Kairi and Riku approach them. They looked cheerful, as always.

He smiled as he turned back to Wakka, who was _still_ searching for his papers. If Kairi was happy, he was happy, and that was the end of the matter.

" Found it! See! Look man, I don't get this part. I mean, what in Yevon was Mr. Hartmire talkin' about anyways?"

" Wakka, you never get it." Leon rolled his eyes. " Remember what Hartmire said about Romans and control? Trimalchio's whole issue with the three pigs was that while his guests think they can choose, it's Trimalchio who chooses in the end."

" It's all illusions," Yuna remarked. She had been talking with Naminé, who was looking incredibly bothered. " Everything, even the wall hangings of the boar hunt and the mosaic of the guard dog, were illusions-"

" Thank you!" Tidus exclaimed, diving into his own backpack. " I just BS'd the whole shit!"

Yuna smiled some before rolling her eyes and turning back to continue her intense conversation with Naminé. Eventually they called over Aerith. Sora narrowed his eyes. When anyone called over Aerith, that meant only one thing – personal advice, words of wisdom, trouble in the house.

" So, how are our other pair of lovers today?" Selphie called out, bounding over to one of the most popular couples in high school.

Riku grinned some. He was six feet tall, with silver hair that other girls died for. The suave look on his face belied the easy-going demeanor he carried with his group of friends. Of course, things didn't quite help that he liked wearing tight shirts that showed off the muscles he gained from all the sports he played. The shirt he was wearing was dark blue with yellow and he was wearing dark blue jeans.

His arm was around Kairi, arguably the most sought-after girl in high school. It was the unfortunately luck of every boy that she had been going steady with someone since the eighth grade; they would've assaulted the redhead beauty with proposals that would've forced Sora to take extra measures to find her breathing space.

Her long red hair tossed in the gentle cool breeze and tousled with her bangs, which fell over the right side of her pale face. Her blue-violet eyes shone, as always. Today she was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a collar and low dark blue jeans.

Sora narrowed his eyes some. Since when did Kairi wear long-sleeved shirts? And why was Riku on her left side? He was _always_ on her right side.

He shook his head of such irrelevant thoughts as Yuffie gagged loudly and Riku simply poked her dark-haired head away. " Yuffie, we don't need any more of that. You guys are sophomores, have you forgotten?"

The aspiring ninja grinned. " Just doing my duty as Yuffie the Ninja!"

Irvine groaned. " NOT again!"

" Hey, let her be," Cloud said quietly, though his eyes twinkled with laughter.

Rinoa was busy talking to Kairi while Riku had drifted over to Wakka and Tidus, who were busy writing madly on their pieces of papers. " Man, you guys have it harder than I did. This Mr. Hartmire _is_ tough."

" Man, you don't know tough until you had him for ninth grade, too," Wakka grumbled as he paused in writing. " I thought that shit was hard; then _bam!_ Now look what we have, brudda; questions covering both whiteboards!"

" I should've never complained while I was at it last year," Tidus laughed nervously. " No wonder Mr. Hartmire still hates me."

Everyone happened to hear this. Yuna sighed and shook her head. " Tidus, everyone hates you. We just don't say it in your face."

The blond teenager held a hand to his heart. " Ow! I've been stabbed! I am dying-ow!"

Wakka pointed to his pen. " Can you pick that up for me? It somehow slipped my fingers and-"

" Enough horsing around," Lulu interrupted curtly. " You have Mr. Hartmire first period and you haven't finished your homework yet? Wakka…"

" Sorry," he grinned sheepishly, then leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips.

Yuffie gagged and Selphie cuffed her on the head. Leon only sighed and rolled his eyes.

" Cheer up," Rinoa smiled to him. " We only have-"

_Ring!_

"-zero more seconds to wait before school beings."

" That's not it…" Leon protested weakly as Wakka cried out in despair and wrote desperately on his piece of paper. Tidus shrugged and picked up his backpack as everyone huddled towards their respective classes. Sora waited patiently, a smile on his face at his friends' antics, as Kairi, Tidus, and Cloud joined him.

" To Biology?" Tidus asked cheerfully.

" Cheerfully? I don't think so," Cloud muttered. Kairi giggled.

Sora took the chance to ask. " Kairi, since when were you wearing long-sleeved shirts?"

" Me?" She pointed to herself. " No reason. Why?"

" I remember you telling me halfway through the eighth grade that you hated long sleeves. Why start liking them _now_?"

" I, uh…no reason," she smiled, shrugging. And wincing slightly.

" Kairi, what's wrong?" He knew something was up.

" Nothing," she grinned sheepishly. " I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed; my shoulders _are_ a bit stiff…"

Sora sighed and reached out. His hands alighted on her shoulders and he made slow circles with his thumbs on her back. Kairi sighed with content.

" There, feeling better?"

She nodded. " Thanks."

" Hey, that's what friends are for, right?" Sora smiled, now joining her side again as they entered B Hall – the Science Building.

" Especially best friends."

" Yeah…"

''

" You know," Tidus remarked loudly, knowing everyone will hear him and no one will stop him, " I was having driving lessons the other day and while I was driving, I suddenly couldn't read the signs. You know, like the 'Stop' sign? I couldn't tell what it was and-"

" Andrew, do you have your bat?" Mr. Hartmire interrupted, rolling his eyes while the rest of the class giggled.

" What about an ice block?" Goofy – Gary, really – suggested, referring an inside joke on the cleanest methods of kidding. (A/N: Use your imagination and tell me what he means in your review!)

The class roared with laughter, Tidus laughing with them.

Sora shook his head, smiling as he put the finishing touches on the classwork. He found it so much easier to do as much homework as possible in school so that he could devote the rest of his time to making sure there were no mistakes in cleaning the house, tending to the garden's last fruits, and cooking his aunts' dinners-

" And Tidus wonders why Mr. Hartmire hates him," Kairi murmured in her seat behind him.

" You could educate him on the finer points of pissing off Mr. Hartmire," Sora suggested brightly.

" Everybody did," she reminded him, looking behind her at a grinning Tidus. " Not that it's going to help him much."

" Kairi!" Mr. Hartmire suddenly barked. Sora stifled his laughter as he spotted Kairi jump in her seat from the corner of his eye.

" Uh…yes, Mr. Hartmire?"

" Care to explain your conversation?" the teacher said. " No? Then care to explain the poetry Trimalchio read to his guests?"

" Um…sure," Kairi muttered, fumbling with her papers.

" Hey, peacocks!" Tidus exclaimed. " You know, we had like this whole herd of peacocks in the backyard. They sound like cats! You have any idea how hard it is to sleep with like ten cats meowing in your backyard-"

" Tidus, please!" Mr. Hartmire exclaimed as he sat on Larxene Dawson's desk. " Screen! Screen!"

He made a circular hand gesture against his forehead. " Please block out all unnecessary info and thoughts. We do not need to know how well you slept last night, only what Kairi has to say about the poem…"

He looked to Kairi, who stammered, " Um…the poem's basically saying that while Rome's getting wealthy through expansion, within…Rome's…um…corrupted?"

" Excellent!" Mr. Hartmire boomed, loud enough for everyone to jump. " Exactly! The poem is suggesting that Rome will crumble from within, while it expands ever farther and soaks up all the riches along the way! Excellent work, Miss Nomura, excellent…now, I want the R.A.P. done by tomorrow and tonight…you will finish reading Trimalchio!"

A universal groan rose as Sora frantically wrought out the last words to the R.A.P. He hadn't realized just how wordy he got until the bell rang and he still had two questions to answer.

" Well, now we've got Lambeau to deal with…" Tidus groaned as he dumped his papers into his red backpack. He then rubbed his stomach. " Man, I'm starved."

" Nutrition does exist for a reason," Kairi smiled as she stacked her folders.

" Man, Tidus, you just keep talkin' and talkin'," Cloud remarked, shaking his head as he walked over to their row. " I could hear you breathing from where I'm sitting."

" Really?" Tidus looked rather pleased with himself as the four of them filed out of Mr. Hartmire's class. Then his face promptly dropped. " Mr. Lambeau now, eh?"

" Hey be nice," Kairi scolded him. " Just because he's French-"

"-doesn't mean you can poke fun at him," Sora finished promptly.

" Yeah, exactly."

Tidus stared at them weird. Sora raised an eyebrow at him. _Yes, do you have a problem with us finishing each other's sentences?_

" Tidus, they've been like that for ages," Cloud reminded him as they walked into E Building, which was next to D Building and Mr. Hartmire's class. " I know that and I'm not the one who knew them since elementary."

Sora couldn't help but grin; he could remember quite clearly the day when Kairi forced him to join Tidus and Wakka for a round of handball. Oh that day was so memorable; Sora discovered he had a talent for handball and treasured the memory of bopping the ball at the wall, only to watch it streak at Tidus and give him a bloody nose.

" Yeah well…I guess I get too used to it," Tidus decided as the short, prim Frenchman, Mr. Lambeau greeted the incoming students, " 'Ello, 'ello! My favorite class! We'll be watchin' a movie on Rome today so put 'way your folders. The movie guides are on the front desk; pick one up while I take roll."

" Yes!" Demyx Karkaroff hooted at the top of his lungs and danced what looked like a jig to the spindly table up front. " I _love_ this class!"

" Thank you," Mr. Lambeau smiled, not realizing that Demyx was half-joking.

" I still hate this class but-" Sora said as he picked up four sheets of paper.

"- we all love movie days," Kairi promptly finished as the four of them hustled to their seats.

What was really interesting about Mr. Lambeau's class was that his class was not chock full of those steel desk-chairs with cold seats. As in many middle schools and in all elementary schools, his class was comprised of long desks, two to a table, that made an elongated 'U' and opened up to the board up front. There was an inner 'U' and an outer 'U'. That and the projector and the white screen that Mr. Lambeau pulled down.

" Tidus, please put your food 'way!" he called out as Tidus began to unwrap his sandwich.

" Damn!" the blond teenager swore as he stuffed the sandwich under the table. Cloud, who was sharing the table with him, grunted and rolled his eyes.

Kairi giggled.

" Idiot," Sora snorted as he sat in between Cloud and Kairi.

" I said I was hungry," Tidus whined. Then he grinned darkly. " Not that Mr. Lambeau can see in the dark!"

" But we're kind of close to his desk," Cloud muttered, jerking a thumb behind to the huge desk with the plastic shelves and papers.

Tidus glared first at Cloud, then at Kairi. " Kairi, it's all your fault!"

The redhead shrugged as she took out a pen. " You didn't have to sit with us."

" Of course you _had_ to sit with your friends," Sora added. " So-"

" Quiet, please," Mr. Lambeau called out as he strode to the laptop on the moving stand in the middle of the inner 'U'. " Movie is 'bout to start; please pay attention! The movie guides are due at the end of the period."

" Totally uncool," Cloud mumbled as dramatic music started and the projector projected an image of cobblestone roads winding through a rural, green countryside.

Sora yawned as the narrator – the same generic male narrator you hear in every movie preview and ad – began to drone about the cobblestone roads and their origins two thousand years ago. He bit his lip as his gut suddenly twisted and he grimaced at the wave of pain.

_Only one more hour until lunch. Just hang in there._

" Tidus, are you eatin'?" Mr. Lambeau called out in his heavy but lyrical French accent.

" What? No!" Tidus yelled back, his voice muffled by the bite of sandwich.

" You sure?"

Tidus nodded vigorously as he slipped his half-eaten sandwich under the table. " Positive."

" Okay then."

Tidus grinned, gave the others a thumbs-up, and swallowed. Cloud shook his head and rolled his eyes, as many people did around Tidus.

" Hey!" Andrew Horowitz, the guy with the baseball bat, hissed from behind Cloud. " Can you move your head? Your spikes are getting in the way."

" Sorry," Cloud replied, running a hand through his hair. He then leaned to the right and propped his head up with his right arm so that Andrew could see.

Sora crossed his arms tightly over his stomach and winced as his body complained about the lack of food. Tidus eating his sandwich didn't help much either.

The movie was now reenacting scenes from Republican Rome. To be honest, Sora had never found the movie, minus the narrator, so fascinating but every time he tried to focus and answer the movie guide, his stomach complained, sending his mind reeling.

_Man, I should've eaten during nutrition wile I had the chance._

Sora sighed, then crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table. He knew quite well that as long as his face was towards the screen, Mr. Lambeau would never suspect that he was sleeping.

" I thought you love this class," Kairi murmured as she scribbled down on the movie guide. She looked sideways at him and smiled.

" Not when I'm dead tired," Sora lied matter-of-factly, then faked a yawn, masking the pain as his gut twisted again.

" Since when were you tired?"

" Tenth grade," Sora remarked, then yawned for reals. " All the damn homework…I mean I love the Humanities program but throw in A.P. Biology and Calculus-"

Kairi shook her head slightly. " You really suck at math and science, you know that? You didn't have to take those classes."

" Don't matter," Sora muttered. " I mean, I feel safe knowing my best friend's getting A's in the classes."

" Yeah, I'm working my ass off and its hard, even with Riku helping me," Kairi retorted. " Oh fine, go and sleep. You can copy my guide afterwards. Seriously, you may be smart but you sure know how to be a lazy bum."

Sora had a counterattack in mind but he decided against it. Push her and the truth might slip. And he was not going to have that happen anytime soon.

He blinked. The world seemed to have gone blurry. Another blink and suddenly the whole world had gone razor sharp. Sora stared; everything was incredibly clear and precise, the projector, the movie, even the tiny fine hairs on his bony arm. He closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, but the world remained in a queer, clear focus.

Sora wondered at this second wind when he saw Kairi, busy focusing on the movie. Once in a while she'd jot down notes on a separate piece of paper and the answer on the movie guide but the movie, now in the middle of a spectacular war scene, had her full attention.

A wave of peace overwhelmed him, quieting the hungry unease in his stomach. The more he watched Kairi, the more peaceful he felt. Kairi always found a way to make him smile but she never had that effect on him before.

Whatever it was, Sora felt no more pain as he continued to watch Kairi. At one point he saw her look sideways at him but he refocused on the movie quickly. Kairi seemed baffled as she too continued to watch the movie. In the light of the projector here was a faint pink tinge on her cheeks.

_Where'd that come from?_

The movie suddenly blurred and Sora stifled another yawn. He looked at his very blank movie guide and felt a pang of guilt. He always did well in this class but today he was far from-

His insides rolled and Sora grimaced, hooking his feet around the chair legs tightly. Once the pain resided, Sora breathed a sigh of relief and then turned his eyes to Kairi. Pain instantly subsided as he studied her, watched his best friend display the skills that made her a top student in the tenth grade.

But slowly he found himself studying her for who she was, an auburn-haired teenager with intense, expressive violet-blue eyes and soft lips that always held a ready smile for him. Now she was biting her lip, as she always did, but he never really noticed it before, especially not in the way he was seeing it now-

_Sora, what are you doing? Get a grip; she's your best friend! You do NOT check out your best friend!_

The brunet frowned. Yes, something was wrong with his head. Where were all these thoughts coming from? And why didn't he like the direction they were headed?

Burying his head in his arms, Sora decided to block out the outside world, as he had learned in his long years in the house on the hill on the wrong side of the district border. Soon the movie, the class, Kairi, the movie guide, all thoughts and emotions, melted away into the deep dark abyss of sleep.

""

" You know, your birthday's in three days," Sora remarked as he, Kairi, Riku, and Naminé walked down the sidewalk.

" Is it fifteenth or sixteenth?" Naminé asked curiously. " After all, this _is_ December."

" Sixteen," Kairi confirmed. " I was born too late to join Riku's generation. That does make me the oldest among everyone else."

" Still the shortest," Riku grinned, running a hand through her hair.

" Not the hair!" Kairi laughed, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him.

" Sorry," the older teenager smiled. He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips.

" Right, you lovebirds," Naminé smiled as she somehow managed to walk, carry all her school supplies, and sketch in her black sketchbook at the same time.

" What are you drawing?" Sora wondered, leaning over to take a peek.

" N-nothing," she stammered, pulling the sketchbook into her chest and shielding it from his eyes. She turned bright pink.

" What's this, Naminé's drawing something naughty?" Riku joked.

" Oh knock it off," Sora snapped, shrugging at the hopelessness of Riku's mindset.

Ever since Kairi brought the two former childhood friends back together, Sora's learned some things about Riku that shocked him. That included the neat stack of _Maxim_ magazines under his queen-sized bed. And the list of adult sites he found listed under 'Favorites' in Riku's laptop's Web browser.

Either Riku's turbo-charged or Sora's the one lacking in libido.

" Uh Sora? What's with that smile on your face?" Kairi ventured to ask, shattering his rather grotesque train of thought.

" Yeah, I never saw that kind of smile before," Riku mused. His icy eyes tried to pierce Sora's mind and sort through his thoughts.

" What, not allowed to daydream?" Sora asked mildly.

Naminé suddenly dropped her sketchbook; loose-leaf paper scattered all over the sidewalk.

" Oh no…" she groaned, kneeling down and hastily trying to pick up the papers. " This is so stupid…"

" No sweat; aren't you glad there's six hands to help?" Riku smiled. Sora swore silently; Riku was working his damn charm again.

" Wow, these are nice," Kairi commented as she shuffled a handful of drawings into a neat stack.

" Um…thanks," Naminé muttered.

Sora was busy doing the same when he came across a curious type of paper. It was creamy and thick; he flipped it over just as Naminé yelped, " Not that one!"

Sora stared.

He didn't know how Naminé did it but she had sketched Sora standing on a cliff, looking out over a place – maybe the sea? She had detailed him perfectly, from his incredibly wild hair to his slouching stance to the distant look on his face. And sprouting from his back were magnificent angel wings. Black wings.

" Wow," he whispered.

Then he noticed something pale running under the wings; in the drawings his hands were holding them. Following them he suddenly realized that there was someone else in the drawing. Someone obviously a woman with long hair, but he couldn't tell who it was. Whoever she was she was slender and was embracing him intimately.

" Damn shit," Riku swore as he leaned over Sora's left shoulder. " Naminé, how'd you…?"

Sora looked up slowly, unsure of what he was going to find.

" I-I-I-I…" Naminé stammered, turning furiously red. She was holding onto the papers she had collected tightly, and looked ready to sink into the ground.

Beyond her Sora could see Kairi, absentmindedly shuffling the papers she had collected. For one he couldn't read the expression on her face but noticed how rigidly she was shuffling the papers. Sora finally concluded he didn't like the look and averted his gaze.

" Naminé?" Riku tapped a finger at the girl behind winged Sora. " Who's that?"

The blush on her face deepened as she managed to say, " I-I don't know. I drew what I…dreamed."

" Oh…" Riku sounded disappointed. Sora threw him a dirty look. He then flipped the drawing over, mixed it into his stack, and handed the papers to the blonde teenager. " Here."

Naminé didn't answer; she merely bowed her head as Riku added his papers. Then Kairi held out her papers stiffly, the expression on her face still unreadable.

" Here," she muttered.

Finally the four of them started moving again, though silence hung over them. Kairi clung to Riku's arm and stared at her feet while Sora and Naminé kept their distance. Quietly they dropped off Naminé, walked some more, stopped by what looked like an English estate to drop off Riku, and then headed towards Kairi's house.

Sora jammed his hands into his pockets as the only sounds in his ear were the steady footsteps on the sidewalk. He looked at Kairi, who was looking stiffly ahead, and found himself baffled and irritated by her uncharacteristic silence.

And then he remembered something that he discovered during P.E.

" Kairi?"

" Hm?" She looked at him curiously, biting her bottom lip again.

" You still haven't explained the bruise on your arm."

Kairi stopped abruptly and Sora took a few more steps before he realized it.

" Sora…"

He turned to her. " Kairi, spill it. Tell me what happened. Remember, best friends-"

"-don't keep secrets," she sighed. Then she stepped to her left and into Fate Memorial Park, which was located near Kairi's house. Sora followed her, knowing Kairi was taking her time to choose her words.

" It was yesterday, Sunday," Kairi said slowly, placing a hand on the trunk of a tall oak tree and letting her fingers run over the rough bark. " Riku and I were at the theaters. We…we got into an argument over what to watch. It's pretty stupid, really…he wanted to see 'King Kong', and I wanted to see 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. At one point…Riku got really angry."

She shuddered slightly, stopped talking, and then sat down on one of the wooden benches scattered throughout the expansive park. Sora stood next to the bench, simply waiting. Minutes ticked by.

" He…he grabbed me…I never saw him so angry before," she said softly, staring at her feet. " He was sorry afterwards but…I got a bruise."

" He lost his temper?" Sora echoed, puzzled and shocked. " Riku never losses his-"

" He's never been angry with me like that before, but what bothers me is that we got into a fight over something really stupid. Maybe yesterday was a glitch. He might've been off that day…"

" Riku's never off," Sora said doubtfully. " Then again, I don't know…"

Kairi smiled faintly. Then she looked serious as she turned to Sora. " Now it's my turn."

" What?" Sora sat down next to her and waited for the answer.

" You have cuts on your face," Kairi stated matter-of-factly. " What happened?"

Sora felt blood drain from his face. He thought he might've gotten visibly hurt when he felt an unnatural warmth on his face earlier that morning-

_Aunt Sponge wears rings on both hands. Damn it!_

" I…woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Sora sighed, choosing his words carefully and precisely. " Literally."

Sora _did_ wake up on the wrong side of the bed, but not literally.

" Oh…are you okay?" Kairi asked. He could see the gears in her mind working, trying to make sense of Sora falling off his bed.

" Is it that bad?" Sora questioned worriedly, moving to touch the side of his face but putting his hand back down.

" Um…" Kairi reached over and touched his face lightly. " No, not really."

The brunet shuddered involuntarily at the touch and Kairi pulled back. " Sora?"

He shook his head, tried to get the unnatural sensation out of his mind. " No…it's nothing."

" Did it hurt?"

Sora shook his head again, stood up. " I should go home."

The redhead nodded. " Okay then."

He didn't like her sad face and made a smile. " Hey, be careful. Riku might've been having a bad day but…just be careful, okay?"

She smiled in return. " Thanks…Sora."

" That's what friends for," Sora answered and walked away, a strange yet pleasant feeling rising from deep within.

But something bothered him tremendously, hammering into his mind as he unlatched and pushed open the gate that surrounded the hill he lived on. Yesterday life went on with regular uniformity. But today…something changed.

But what?


	4. Little Lies

**Author's Note**: I was acting like an idiot and left my notebook – with the completed chapter – in my art class. So I couldn't update as quickly as I wanted. Be prepared for slower updates; this story does NOT follow the regular updating pattern of my other stories.

**Copyrights:** All characters mentioned are the property of Square-Enix and Disney excluding Mr. Hartmire, who is simply my 9th and 10th grade English Literature teacher with my 7th grade English teacher's name. The plot and the settings, however, are mine.

**Warnings**: Beware of cursing and graphic imagery.

**Best Deceptions**

**2**

**Little Lies**

" I love Thursday," Tidus suddenly blurted.

Silence.

" Did Tidus just say that?" Wakka asked, clearing his ear with his pinkie.

" You like a _weekday_?" Irvine asked in disbelief. " Tidus, are you high? How could you?"

" Maybe being around some school geniuses, yah?" Wakka grinned, looking pointedly at Kairi and Yuna.

" No, no, no," the blond teenager scowled good-naturedly. " Today's Kairi's birthday. And then it's Friday!"

" TGIAF," Yuffie muttered. " Thank God It's Almost Friday."

Kairi giggled, blushing. She looked at Riku, who currently held the position of "Birthday Girl's Manservant."

" Maybe you girls bought too many balloons," Cloud remarked, eyeing the bobbing oval foils. " Mr. Hartmire is NOT going to like this."

Leon shrugged. " Whatever."

" Leon…" Rinoa sighed in exasperation.

" Kairi?"

From the long stream of wandering students – more like a river – a group of fish broke away and swam towards them. It was the five friends from Kairi's elementary days: Mickey, Mina, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy.

" Oh hey guys!" Kairi said cheerfully. The others who knew them nodded as well with recognition.

" Kairi, it's your birthday?" Daisy asked incredulously, looking at the mass of balloons and the presents in Riku's arms.

" Yeah, it's my sixteenth."

" Happy Birthday!" Mina exclaimed, giving her a hug.

" Hey, where's Sora?" Mickey asked curiously, looking around while Donald and Goofy became engaged in a lively conversation with Tidus and Wakka.

" Restroom," Riku input. " I think he went on purpose."

" Oh, he decided to ditch his job as "Birthday Girl's Manservant"? After six years? That's a first," Mickey replied, raising an eyebrow.

Riku shrugged. " He's a strange one. And there's a first for everything."

" Well, we've got to get moving," Daisy said, raising her voice slightly so that Donald and Goofy could hear her as well. " Gotta meet up with Chipndale on the other side."

The five packrats moved on, merging into the flowing river of students as Sora arrived.

''

He felt his stomach churn slightly and fought himself. He had gone without breakfast again; Aunt Spike had gotten furious with him over something she didn't care to explain and he had to skip dinner, too.

_And I only have enough money for a pack of Pop-Tarts!_

He smiled, knowing why to his broke status, as he reached the others. " Did I miss anything?"

" Mickey and his gang stopped by, man," Wakka remarked, then scrutinized him. " Man, you okay or somethin'? You look sick, man."

" Me?" Sora gestured to himself, confused.

" You look pale," Naminé said quietly, looking away. " Maybe you should go home."

Sora shook his head. There was no way he was going home so early today. " I'm not missing out on my best friend's birthday, thanks."

" I'd rather you don't get sick, Sora," Kairi countered.

" I'm fine, Kairi," Sora retorted. " I'm okay, really!"

His stomach twisted again. It wasn't pain though; a queasy sensation ran through the length of his body. Kairi kept watching him.

" Sora?"

He scratched his head, laughed nervously. " It's nothing, really…"

He then eyed Riku and all the presents in his arms. " Since when were you the Birthday Girl's Manservant?"

Riku smirked. " When you dumped us to have a little get-together with the restroom."

He dumped all the gifts in Sora's arms. The teenager staggered for a moment, then demanded, " Am I going to carry these all day?"

" Too bad!" Selphie and Yuffie laughed darkly.

" You said you were the manservant of the day," Aerith smiled. " Good luck."

The bell rang. Sora groaned.

""

" And who's idea was this?" Leon demanded, extending his vocabulary and demonstrating his talent with words once again.

" Don't like birthdays?" Rinoa joked.

" Not banquet halls," Cloud muttered, crossing his arms tightly and looking quite sour. The two boys seemed to have read each other's train of thought.

" You ninnies!" Aerith laughed. " Just be glad the others didn't do a thing about dress code!"

" Dress code!" Irvine all but yelled. " Do hats count?"

He touched his ten-gallon black hat tentatively, treating it practically as his little baby.

" If you do this, then yes," Selphie retorted, jamming the hat down over his eyes.

" It's all Sora's idea, Leon," Yuffie rolled her eyes while Irving yelped and tried to yank his hat off. " What do you _think_?"

Sora smiled sheepishly as he was finally brought up as a topic to discuss. It took a hell lot of money to reserve the banquet hall, more to decorate and get the good, and almost every penny he had left to buy Kairi's gift.

He put a hand in his pocket, fingering the small paper-wrapped box. He just wasn't sure when to give it to her; it wasn't just that he had plenty of trouble choosing the gift but the content of the gift irritated him, pestered him in the back of his mind.

_What would Riku say?_

But best friends are best friends. He fingered the crown medallion that hung form his neck on a steel chain. This was her gift to him on his fifteenth birthday. He was simply replying in kind, right?

And speaking of Kairi, where was she?

" So you're going to stay until five?" Yuna questioned curiously.

Sora blinked at the shot from the blue, then smiled. " I love Thursday."

" You regular S.O.B," Tidus scowled. " Stole my line."

" I'm here until seven," the brunet smirked. He knew quite well what and where Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker did on Thursdays – bingo nights across town. " And I'm not missing out on her Sweet Sixteen-"

" Man!" Wakka threw an arm around Sora's neck and gave his noggin a rubbin'. " You are one crazy friend!"

" Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Sora fought back but he wasn't strong enough.

" Wakka," Lulu interjected quietly, on Sora's behalf. She stroked her Moogle doll, waiting patiently for her words to get into her boyfriend's head.

The redhead somehow managed to hear her over Sora's loud protests, alright, and promptly – albeit, reluctantly – let him go. Sora fell flat on his stomach and groaned. " Wakka, you are so dead…"

He looked up as sandals came into his field of vision. He grinned sheepishly, turning pink with embarrassment, and got to his feet.

" Naminé, have you seen Kairi?" Aerith inquired as the blonde girl looked from Wakka to Sora, bemused.

" Uh…good question…" she laughed nervously. She gave a sidelong glance to the double doors she just appeared from. " Right there."

Heading for the dance floor, where everybody else was standing, was Kairi, smiling and looking red all at once. Everyone raised an eyebrow at this; she was one shade shy of her fiery red hair.

" Did we miss something?" Lulu asked, already suspecting something. Sora didn't get it, though, as everybody else started nodding and grinning.

" Uh…no?" Kairi laughed nervously. " Just to let you know, Riku's bringing his friends over-"

" What!"

Sora ran a hand through his hair, thoroughly agitated. Everyone turned to him, and even Kairi looked shocked. " Sora, what's wrong?"

He shook his head a bit, didn't want to answer. He had yet to tell everyone where many of Riku's junior friends came from. " No…never mind…nothing."

" Sora-"

" Hey, look a that, it's that crazy lil' grammar dick with shit for hair!"

Sora winced slightly, covered it up, forced himself to turn, and tried not to show any interest in the group of juniors heading towards them.

" Little twerp's still kickin'? I thought he'd gone to hell already!"

" Heheh, guess bastards like him just stick around for too long for their own good!"

Riku's friends mainly consisted of 'tough' people: Seifer, his 'lackeys Rajin and Fujin, Paine, Zidane, Garnet, Shuyin, Lenne, and Tifa. Tifa, Shuyin, and Garnet went to Fates Middle School but the others were from H.G. Wells. They and Sora had a long history together, something he clearly didn't want to remember.

But what shocked him was the simple smirk on Riku's face. He did nothing as his friends stood apart from the sophomores, jeering Sora and discussing with shock his very existence.

"…little nerd's trying to act all gangsta, eh…"

"…birthday girl's manservant? Look at the skinny little runt; bet he's a castrated sonofabitch now…"

" Hey, yellow bastard, how's your shitty life? Looks like you came out of some dumpster this time! Better than your old home?"

Sora sighed, turned to walk away.

" Now where ya goin'?"

" We were just getting started, you little fucker!"

" Turn around, be a man – no, wait, you got your balls hacked off, didn't you? Didn't you? Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Sora gritted his teeth, willed himself to ignore them. He could always have an angry retort waiting for them but what's the use? It's a total waste of time and a guarantee to live a long healthy life if nothing was said.

" Why you-"

" We're at a party, Seifer," Riku said coolly, cutting him off sharply. " My girlfriend's Sweet Sixteen. No funny business today. Got it?"

" Riku, you know me," Sora heard Seifer reply. " The two of us got a long history together. You know, this was just a little…get-together."

" Not at her birthday."

" Well, why not?"

Sora decided to block them out, busied himself with the table settings. His mind was abuzz. Why were they here?" If anything else, he knew what they'd do to him. Kiddish stuff, really, but they could do worse. Far worse.

" Don't let them get to you," Cloud said calmly as he joined Sora. " They're just a bunch of sore losers and fools who think they're rulers of a pretty dull world."

" I know but – ow!" A hand shot up to the back of his head and he rubbed the sore spot. He looked behind him at Zidane and Paine, who were laughing. Then Zidane aimed another rubber band and fired.

Sora sighed and stormed off fro the farthest table. This, he knew, was going to be one long evening.

''

The only food he could really trust was the garlic bread. With Riku's friends around, he knew something was bound to happen to the food and drinks.

Zidane continued to pester him with an endless supply of rubber bands and he nearly impaled himself on a well-placed knife. Somebody tripped him, someone splashed soda on his shirt, and wherever he walked by a group of them, they'd hiss at him. He tried to keep his composure for the sake of the birthday but that was only until the lights were dim, the disco ball was shimmering, the hired DJ was cranking out music, and people were either playing poker or dancing on the dance floor.

He was watching from the sidelines, not interested at all in dancing. Truth be told, he didn't know a single move, not even the 'macarena'. Instead he was busy watching the others. Leon and Cloud were off near the tables, avoiding the dance floor as if their lives depended on it. Aerith and Rinoa were laughing on the dance floor; Yuna, Selphie, Yuffie, Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, and Naminé were competing for the best dance moves. Kairi and Riku were mock-waltzing and laughing. Sora felt his heart soar at the joy on her face. That was enough to wipe away every dark feeling he harbored when he first saw Riku's friends.

Speaking of them, they were playing poker with a hired dealer. Several were smoking; others were busy counting their ships and glaring at each other from behind their hands. Tifa and Lenne were on the dance floor, too, and Sora entertained himself with the looks Tifa kept sending the happily oblivious Cloud. It was obvious the dark-haired junior was totally blown away by the sophomore. He couldn't help but smirk at this predicament. He totally knew Cloud had a crush on but that lucky girl never considered him as someone other than a friend.

Poor Cloud.

Sora looked up at the clock. He had forty-five minutes left and nothing to do.

" Well, well, well, little eunuch playing by himself, eh?" Seifer, Rajin, and Fujin suddenly materialized in front of him. Sora reflexively backed away into the wall.

" Just look at him," Rajin muttered. " Little ugly thing. Ugliest piece of shit I've ever seen."

" What do you want?" Sora asked, looking as uninterested as possible.

" I said we were going to have a little get-together," Seifer retorted. " Haven't seen you in a while. Looking more pathetic than ever since middle school. I wonder….is it from your mom or your dad?"

Sora's blood froze.

" Bet them both look pretty ugly," Fujin snorted into his hand. " Ugly times ugly is ugly squared and we totally got proof in this little piece-of-shit."

" Haha, no that comes from your daddy sleeping with her," Seifer laughed. " I say they're fuckers who don't know how to tell their kid's head from his toes."

" Weren't they like dead drunk when the car went over the bridge?"

" Bet ya she was giving him a blow job and it felt so good he lost control."

" What, having sex while driving over a river?"

" Ha, they were dumb alright. Gave the world this shitty thing with a tootsie roll grammar dick. Fix my talk, huh, fix my talk!"

" Shut up."

Seifer, Rajin, and Fujin stopped. Sora was glaring at them, felt himself shake with rage. A hand clenched into a fist behind his back.

" Don't you dare talk about my parents!"

" What, 'cuz they're druggies and dunces, and you're too shamed to admit it-"

The fist flew. Seifer staggered back as blood bloomed from his nose. He covered his face and the hot red liquid streamed between his fingers.

" You motherfucker!" Seifer swore, his voice thick. " I'm killing you, Hamasaki. You hear me? Better watch your back because my hands are going to snap it! Better look out or else I'll slit your throat! You hear me, Hamasaki – hey, you listening to me? Hey you!"

Sora, walking away as quickly yet smoothly as possible, stopped only once to reply.

" You go ahead and do that Seifer. Go ahead, after I bury you. You'll see."

He kept walking, lost himself in the dimness, preferring not to see the looks on the three juniors' faces. His blood was boiling, stinging with the string of insults leveled at him and his dead parents.

_Mom, Dad, where are you? Why can't you help me out here for once? Why did _they_ have to come?_

Sora picked up his backpack, safely stashed under the buffest tables. He hoisted it onto his shoulders, then looked at the ongoing party. Nobody saw him, nobody saw Seifer, Rajin, and Fujin. They were in their own worlds, oblivious to those who stood on the outside.

Sora felt a pang of longing, of wanting to belong. What began in elementary school had continued to live in him, the feelings of loneliness and anguish of rejection. Everyone ignored him then; everyone was ignoring him now.

He was forgotten.

He watched Riku and Kairi for a few minutes, decided to leave before his mood spoiled her evening. They were so close the emotions of one could – and would – be felt with perfect clarity in the other. There was no point in letting his mood affect her Sweet Sixteen now.

He stopped once more on his unknown trek to the door. Slipping a hand into his pocket, he pulled out the tiny box and nestled it amongst the other, larger, more conspicuous gifts.

Sora left. Nobody said goodbye. Everyone had forgotten him.

""

Kairi smiled as she jumped off the polished dance floor and headed for the tables. She poured herself a glass of icy cold water and stood there, enjoying the cool liquid wash over her tongue and down her throat.

She stood there, watching all her friends and Riku's friends socialize, laugh, and have fun on the dance floor, off to the side, and at the poker table. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how the girl Tifa was watching Cloud. Where was Sora? She lost sight of her best friend once Riku pulled her into a dance. One of Riku's closer friends – Seifer, maybe? – was walking out of the restroom, blowing his nose. Rajin and Fujin – yes, that _was_ Seifer – trailed him obediently, the man followed by his two loyal dogs.

Kairi giggled, then spotted Naminé talking to Yuna and Aerith. Curiosity bubbled up within her; what were they talking about? They all looked so serious…and if Aerith's involved, then it was serious business.

An evil glint in her violet eyes, Kairi inched towards them, careful to act as uninterested as oblivious as possible. And then-

"-he saw my drawing. All three of them. Now I'm so scared I can't even talk to him!"

" What did they say?" Aerith asked carefully.

" Well…I don't know. Sora didn't seem to care. Riku kept asking me so I told him I drew my dreams. But…Kairi, she was acting weird. She looked angry."

" Kairi?" Aerith echoed, looking startled.

Naminé nodded. " She wasn't…happy at all. You think…"

Aerith shook her head. " No. Kairi and Sora won't ruin their friendship. I know them; they both know love can destroy a friendship like theirs."

" Just talk to him, Naminé," Yuna stated simply. " Well, don't tell him how you feel, for obvious reasons. Be nice to him, at least. Talk to him, smile. Maybe he'll notice you. But I think you should keep quiet about the drawing. I know how much you like him, Naminé, but it's not going to help at all if all you do is watch him from behind your papers, drawing all those pictures of him, and saying nothing. He'll never find out."

Naminé flushed a bit in the dimness, stared at her feet. " I know…but I'm so scared."

" You'll never know until you take the first step," Aerith said softly, placing a comforting hand on the fair-haired teenager's arm. " Just be strong and follow your heart. Besides…Sora looks so lonely nowadays. You could help him, you know."

Naminé turned a darker shade. " What…what about you, Aerith?"

The brown-haired girl smiled, shaking her head. " I don't know what to do about Cloud. I know he likes me…but it's just not the same with me. It's so complicated…"

Their voices were lost in the beat of a new song. Kairi backed away quickly, very quickly. She ran into one of the tables, knocking over a half-full glass. Hastily picking up the dripping piece, she piled cloth napkins on the soaked tabletop and just as quickly retreated into the farthest corner of the banquet hall. She found a cushion-layered bench and sat down, her heart pounding with shock. Her hands were in tight fists. She could not help but recall those words.

" _But Kairi…she was acting weird. She looked angry."_

_I was acting weird? I was angry? How could I be angry? I wasn't angry at all! It was such a nice drawing…she must've confused my awe for anger. Yes, that's it! How could I like Sora that way? I have Riku already, right? Where's Sora? I need to talk to him…_

Kairi looked around, realized for the first time that Sora really wasn't here. His absence struck a chord in her heart.

_Where's Sora? It's not even seven yet; he couldn't have gone! I need to talk to him, too! He didn't ditch the party, did he? How could he? My best friend leaving my Sweet Sixteen without even giving me a gift?_

She panicked momentarily, then relaxed.

_Maybe he wasn't feeling so good. He didn't look good the whole day anyways…and he barely ate anything here. Oh I hope he gets better. He's going to pay for ditching the party like that!_

She smiled, imagined his panic at her anger. She just knew he could never stand her being angry at him.

" Hey."

Kairi looked up, a wider smile on her face.

" Riku?"

" You okay?" he asked worriedly, sitting down next to her. Her smile faded, replaced by a sense of peace, as she leaned against his warm body, resting her head on his strong shoulder.

" Yeah…just a bit tired, I guess," she said. Kairi promptly stifled a yawn, eliciting a chuckle from her boyfriend.

" Sleeping at your own birthday?" Riku smirked, leaning close to her. His voice dropped to a soft whisper, velvet in her ears. " That won't do."

She closed her eyes, felt his lips trail lightly along her cheek until they found her lips. He kissed her lightly, left her looking up at him, waiting for another of the soft kisses they shared since her very first in eighth grade. She smiled as he kissed her again, then opened her eyes in surprise when she felt his tongue push in. She resisted for a moment, got caught in a sensuous tug-of-war, then gave in.

He pulled back, lingered at her warm lips, and she whispered his name. She felt him smile, heard him murmur words, then felt him plunge into her mouth again, bringing with him a fire she never felt before.

" Happy Sweet Sixteen, love."

""

Sora stopped as he walked by AVALANCHE Accessories. The lights inside the all-you-need-is-here store were dim; he peered in through a smoky window, spotting the cash register where he had earned money for the first time in his life. He still came here on Thursdays, working from five to six. Cid Highwind, gruff and hard-ass as he was, was far more generous than many other employers. Fifteen bucks for an hour's worth of work was something.

Maybe that included the manual labor; when Sora wasn't at the cash register, he was restocking the shelves and fridges.

Starting the second week of September, Cid began teaching Sora how to play the guitar. Cid practically shoved him into a brutal crash course in mastering ten years worth of guitar in less than four months.

Sora sighed, studied his faint reflection in the window.

_What happened to me? Have I become a ghost? Why…?_

He touched the window tentatively, barely made out the deepening shadows under his blue eyes. His face had become pale underneath the tanned exterior; he looked shriveled, nothing at all like that one old photograph he hid under his pillow back in his room, the one of his three-year-old self and his parents at Destiny Islands.

His clothes hung loosely from his thin frame; he honestly felt surprised his bones hadn't snapped in his mini-struggle with Wakka, let alone shatter when he socked Seifer one in the face. Sora sighed, leaned against his haunted reflection, and stared at his feet.

Faintly he could hear the strum of a guitar in his memory. Oh how he wished he could have stayed at AVALANCHE Accessories, strumming another song on one of Cid's many guitars. But no, he had a birthday to go to; he could not miss Kairi's birthday even if Armageddon was converging on the house on the hill but he sure did miss the guitar's comforting weight and its soothing songs-

" Hey, kid."

Sora jumped, whirled around, and laughed nervously. " Cid…"

" How was the party?" the former Air Force pilot asked, puffing at his small cigarette. " Had fun?"

" For the most part," Sora smiled, concealing the fresh wounds of Seifer's taunting and his friends' ignorance with a cheerful face. " What are you doing out here, old man? Isn't it late for you bedtime?"

" Waiting for you, what do you think? And I _don't_ have a curfew! Kids these days…" Cid shook his head at the hopelessness of modern-day teenagers, then jerked in the direction of his custom-made motorcycle, parked a couple meters down the sidewalk. Sora peered into the dim darkness and was barely able to make out a large, oblong shape perched on the vehicle.

" Figured you were going to need it soon," Cid muttered, looking pointedly away as a genuine grin began to grow on Sora's face. " Go. Take it."

Sora slowly walked over to the silver and black motorcycle. The oblong shape slowly got larger, it's outline more defined. And presently, the teenager found himself staring at a guitar case.

" Cid, you sure?" Sora suddenly asked, his voice filling with doubt.

" Kid, I don't need it. I have more than enough guitars back home," Cid retorted. " Including motorcycles and rifles but we won't go there. Now take it. It's yours. Happy early Christmas."

Sora flashed a smile as he carefully picked up the case. He hefted the heavy weight of the guitar inside, then turned to the rather embarrassed older man.

" Hey old man, thanks," Sora called out. " And it's _Merry_ Christmas, not _Happy_ Christmas."

That got Cid looking, and scowling, at him. " Oh shut the fuck up and go home. Git!"

Laughing, Sora carried the guitar away from AVALANCHE Accessories and its gruff owner. Sora understood him perfectly.

**Author's Endnote**: Please review. Click the button down in the bottom left-hand corner and write your thoughts, opinions, theories, and critiques. I welcome all reviews (and flames) but appreciate **_long_ **reviews, thanks. Thank _you_!


	5. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

**Author's Note:** Chapter 3 is FINALLY up. Sorry it took so long but I got caught up in a lot of homework and two other stories. I've changed things around; please check my Bio before you continue reading. I have made new changes concerning my "answering your questions" system. Anyways, here's Chapter 3!

**Copyright Notes:** None of the characters belong to me but the plot is MINE. The feature song is _Boys of Summer_ by The Ataris, a totally awesome rock group and that song totally rocks so you people better go find it and listen to it!

**Best Deceptions**

**3**

**Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of**

Sunday.

Kairi groaned, tried to get out of bed. Her tired body wouldn't respond and pulled her back into soft white covers. Sleep, it called her, it-

A ringtone sang. Kairi bit back a furious retort and struggled out of bed. After smacking around on the bedside table for a few seconds, she fumbled her fingers around her phone and flipped it open.

" Hello?"

Silence.

" Hello?"

Kairi groaned. She was so tired and someone was prank-calling her. Not okay.

" Goodbye-"

" Hey."

Her eyes opened. " Riku?"

" Still tired?" He was chuckling at the other end.

" I'm not a morning person; you know that!"

" Sorry, sorry…listen…about last night-"

Kairi was wide-awake. She sat up and her head swam.

" What-what about last night?"

He sighed. " I'm…I'm sorry."

" Oh…"

It was quiet. Kairi wanted to put down the phone, bury herself in her blankets, and forget the whole thing. But still, the sounds, the darkness, the warmth, the terror, it followed her, bothered her, frightened her.

" Hey…you still there?"

She just couldn't believe him.

" Yeah…I'm here."

" Listen, I'm really sorry. I – can you forgive me, please?"

She couldn't help but smile. " I forgive you, Riku. Now can I go back to bed?"

He laughed. " Yes, love. But can you do me a favor? Tell Sora I'm sorry for what happened Thursday nights, 'kay?"

Kairi frowned. " Did something happen?"

" Oh…well, so, um…just tell him I'm sorry about Thursday. He'll understand."

" Um…okay. Bye, Riku."

" See you Monday."

There was a beep and she snapped her cell phone shut. She didn't feel so sleepy anymore. Looking out the window, she cold see a thin, glittering blue line and faint hills on the bright horizon. The beach.

_What did Riku mean when he said to say sorry to Sora about Thursday? What-oh._

She remembered his friends taunting Sora. Back then she had been shocked, horrified by them. But she had forgotten.

_Some friend I am._

She flipped open her cell again, then threw it behind her. It skidded across the lavender sheets and fell over the other side, clattering on the varnished wood.

_I don't even know Sora's number. How can I tell him?_

Then it hit her.

_He never told me._

""

He picked at a few lines, then sighed and set his guitar down on the bed next to him. He pulled on his earphones, listened to his CD player for several minutes, then pulled them off. He got it.

He pulled the guitar to him and shifted slightly. His fingers touched the wires.

Nobody on the road

Nobody on the beach

I feel it in the air

The summer's out of reach.

Empty lake

Empty streets

The sun goes down alone.

I'm drivin' by your house

Though I know you're not home.

I can see you

Your brown skin shinin' in the sun

You got your hair combed back

And your sunglasses on, baby

And I can tell you my love for you

Will still be strong

After the boys of

Summer have gone.

He fell silent, listening to the nuances of the guitar. He continued to play out the rest of the song, then let the last string vibrate into stillness. 

It was…strange, like the song was bursting through his heart. Sora closed his eyes for a few seconds, then he was suddenly on his feet, placing the guitar in its case and sliding it under his bed. He absentmindedly brushed at his blue shirt and black shorts, then left his room.

He flinched as the first step complained about his weight but neither aunt yelled at him. They weren't home; something about their businesses, they said, and left him with an empty fridge and a rusty faucet.

Whatever.

Sora smiled. _Damn you, Leon._

Still, his heart tugged. Sora strode through the house, constantly flinching at each small sound he made. When the wood under his foot groaned, he actually took several steps back, his heart beating frantically.

But no harpy swept down upon him, to screech and tear him to bits.

Sighing, laughing nervously and smacking himself upside the head mentally for his idiocy, he finally picked his way to the door, gradually using a specific path where the wood creaked least. His hand touched the doorknob and for a moment he saw portly Aunt Sponge and bone-thin Aunt Spiker waiting impatiently at the door, waiting for him to open it so they could bark at him, literally run him over, and straddle him with daily evening chores.

But no, it was a sunny Sunday afternoon. Blue skies and a few clouds over a mass of homes. He could see mountains in the distance, along with high-rising buildings. The city.

He closed the door behind him and strode down the hill, looking back every so often to the thin shimmering blue strip in the distance. He sighed some, then continued down the hill to the gate. He jumped it, then began walking down the street, straight for Fate Memorial Park. He couldn't explain it, really; it was just some out-of-the-blue need to go to the park. Who knew why.

Funny thin was, whenever he went to the park, he'd find Kairi waiting to tell him something. He hoped it was just coincidence.

He walked into the park, into the shade of the towering oak and pine trees. There were many dirt roads leading to a large blue duck pond, with bordering of willow trees and cattails. Wood and steel benches were scattered throughout the incredibly green park and to the far side of the lake one could see a cluster of picnic tables. There were people massing there, many with balloons and gifts and smiling, happy children. Sora felt his heart drop as he came to a standstill and watched them. He felt a longing, a want for the happy childhood that had slipped away from him, the loss of childhood innocence. What was it like, he toyed with the thought, of running around picnic tables as a little kid, jumping around with balloons, playing tag with friends, eating cake and opening an endless pile of gifts, and being hugged and kissed and photographed with his parents? What was it like to eat actual homemade food and live in relative warmth and comfort and safety?

" And how are you, Hamasaki?" a grave yet light voice asked behind him.

Sora whirled around, frightened, but could only laugh nervously and scratch his head as he said, " Hi, Friar."

The portly, shrew-like man in his brown attire and bald top scrutinized him. " Not up to naughty things, I hope?"

" No, Friar Tuck, not at all," Sora reassured him. " How are you?"

" Oh you know," the monk pointed to the duck pond, then to the bag of feed in his other hand. " Off to feed another of God's beloved, noisy, and smelly creatures."

Sora smiled. " Can I help?"

The friar returned the smile with one of his own. " Certainly. Come. The ducks are calling."

Sora followed the friar to the pond, careful to ignore the increasingly raucous party taking place on the other side of the lake. The friar sat down on the banks of the pond and immediately the ducks swam over to the sound of the feedbag opening. The friar reached in, took a handful of yellow grains, and scattered the handful into the pond.

" If only life could be so simple and peaceful," Friar Tuck sighed as Sora scattered some feed into the pond as well. " A life of bliss, marked by the passages of life and death and all the joys in between. This April I will preside over the marriage between my close friend and his childhood sweetheart. Isn't that so simple? Alas, there is more to it. My small church my close before then."

Sora nodded quietly, as he always did. Always the friar would vent all his emotions and thoughts in the calm ways of a monk to Sora, who would listen with patience.

But close the church?

" My church is more than a House of God," Friar Tuck was saying. " It is sanctuary for the poor, the weak, and the abused. But the city does not know. You live beside the poor and you know what I mean."

Sora nodded quietly, cast more food into the waters. Why were the voices of the birthday party getting louder-

" How are you, Sora?" Always I greet your silence, never your voice. Is something troubling you?"

Sora blinked, stared at the friar. " Me?"

" Well it does get very tiring hearing oneself speak for hours and hours," the friar answered, looking straight at him. " My boy, there are clearly many things bothering you. There's that distant look in your eyes and you're as restless as they come. Care to share? High school getting to you?"

Sora bit his lip, tossed more grain into the pond. " I don't know, Friar Tuck. You know how life's been for me."

" Unfortunately yes, and yet I cannot utter a mere word for then we'd lose you to the ugly maw of Child Services. Do you know how it feels, Sora, when I see my friends' child fail in life yet can't life a finger to do anything?"

Sora looked away. " I can't leave, Tuck. I have no other family and all my friends are here…"

" Would you remain here to be with your friends, even if it kills you?" Friar Tuck asked, a slight edge in his voice.

" I won't die," Sora said softly, focusing on the great, plumed mallard duck paddling in the lake a little distance from him. " I can't die. I'm not here to be with my friends; I'm here for my friends. I am what you said I did; I listen, I watch, then I speak. In the silence, I can see everything."

"But what good will it do for you, Hamasaki, if you never look to yourself?" Friar Tuck asked gently. " Is there someone troubling you?"

" Someone?" Sora echoed, then fell silent, thinking. Memories came to mind, faint images of his past and all his friends, until he remembered what had happened that one movie day at Mr. Lambeau's.

_What had happened?_

" It was fourth period," Sora said, watching the duck preen his plumage. The colors were dull, he saw, but it was only winter. Come spring he would be a fiery burst of color. " Movie day. It was about the rise and fall of Rome. Tidus was eating a sandwich through the whole thing, even though he wasn't supposed to. Cloud was bored as hell."

He sighed, tossed more grain into the water.

" I…I was sick. I didn't really eat at all the last several days so my stomach was killing me. I couldn't focus in class so I put my head down and just decided to watch the movie and fall asleep. But then…things got weird…"

Sora trailed off, remembering with precise detail everything that went through his mind when he looked at Kairi. He felt his face heat up and abruptly hid his face from the friar.

" Ah…the wonders, joys, and sorrows of young love, eh?" he heard the monk chuckle. " Who's the lucky girl?"

Sora turned back, horrified. " No, that's not it, that's not-"

He heard shouts of little kids and both of them turned around to see a horde of kids converge on them. The friar smiled widely at them but Sora cringed.

" The kids from that birthday party…" he whimpered pathetically.

" Peter! Jane! Wendy! Norris! Harry! Ron! And the rest of you, what are you little rascals doing here, huh?" Friar Tuck chuckled as the kids jumped around him, hugging him and chatting madly. Some smiled with gapping holes in their teeth.

" It was Peter's birthday-"

" Bit piñata-"

" George broke his tooth-"

" Are you feeding the ducks, Friar-"

" Can we help-"

Sora tried to inch away. He wasn't particularly fond of masses of little kids. They were quite particularly obnoxious, like right now-

He felt many hands on his back and before he knew it, he was falling headfirst into the pond.

Kid's laughter rang in his ears as he sputtered, bobbing in the lake. The ducks were squawking and windmilling away from him while the friar tried to scold the children. They pointed and laughed at him, and he was soaked and miserable.

" Little kids…"

But he couldn't help but smile. They grinned back at him goofily; it reminded him of Goofy when that kid had his 'days'. Sora made a fist with both hands and squirted water at them. They squealed, laughed while scattering and both Sora and Friar Tuck began to laugh.

The little kids came scuttling back and some of the braver ones scrambled down to the bank, where they splashed at Sora. He was much more experienced, however, and was able to squirt them dead-on while dodging most of their attempts at friendly retaliation.

" Sora?"

He tolerated one last splash of water at his face, then looked up, dripping, bangs partially covering his eyes. All the kids had fallen silent, stared at the willowy teenager with auburn hair with something akin to awe and surprise. She stared at him, at the kids, at Friar Tuck who was laughing like there was no tomorrow, and smiled uncertainly.

The kids looked at Sora again. " Sora? Hi Sora!"

Sora began to laugh.

" Who's she?" one of them asked.

" What's her name?" another asked.

" What's your name?" one of the wet kids asked.

" Kairi," she said.

" Are you Sora's friend?" yet another kid asked.

" How long have you been friends?"

" Wow, you're pretty."

_Damn, losing track of who's saying what_-

" Do you like Sora?"

He sputtered at the question.

She smiled, laughed at it, then said, " As a friend, yes. We've been friends since the fourth grade, about seven years."

" No cooties?"

" No," she smiled, kneeling down to talk to the kids eye-to-eye. Sora watched, interested by how interested she was with their questions.

" I see you all the time," one of the bigger kids, his shirt blotchy with pond water, blurted. " And you're always with him. You sure you don't like him?"

Kairi seemed unfazed by the persistent questions about the two of them. " No, we're only friends. I have someone else. He's tall, got silver hair, and his name's Riku Shimomura."

" Riku?" The kids looked at each other, then a wave of grossed-out faces appeared. " Ew…you _kissed_?"

Friar Tuck couldn't hold back any more. He began to laugh aloud, catching the attention of every person in Fate Memorial Park. The kids, some who were still gagging, began to imitate him, laughing, too. Sora caught Kairi's eye and smiled sheepishly. She grinned, jerked her head towards dry land, and he waded ashore.

" I thought you were just feeding the ducks, like Friar Tuck said you do," she asked amiably as she took his hand and pulled the soggy teenager onto the banks. " Didn't think you'd take a dip in the pond itself, especially during the winter."

" You can ask the kids," he said, gesturing to the children. The parents were moving around the duck pond towards the laughing kids and the friar, and many of them were eyeing Sora and Kairi disapprovingly.

" We'd better get out of here," Kairi muttered, taking the cue.

" What-oh, sure," Sora nodded and they began to walk towards the many high hills in the park.

Silence. The sun shone strongly despite the winter's hold, and Sora felt himself drying up quickly. He looked at Kairi; she was biting her lip with an intensity he never saw before.

" What's wrong? Did something happen between you and Riku?" he demanded, once they came to the top of the highest hill. The lone tree that stood sentry was an oak tree, its branches naked and basking in the glory of the winter sun.

Kairi flushed red. " No, not that. I mean, we're still together but-oh, Riku said he's sorry about Thursday. I guess he didn't know his friends were going to do that to you."

" Oh…"

But Sora clearly remembered the untroubled smirk on Riku's face while his friends basically badmouthed his very existence. " Kairi, what else happened? You avoided my question."

She was curling a lock of hair around her finger. Sora saw how she just seemed to shrink away from the world, her arm held tightly over her stomach and supporting the elbow of the preoccupied arm. She had her left leg slightly crossed over her right and she kept staring at the ground. The kind, smiling demeanor she had around the young partygoers disappeared, replaced by a stranger. Where did Kairi go?

" Did he touch you" Sora asked quietly, unbelieving.

She stared at him. " How-"

" Kairi, I've known you seven straight years. If I didn't notice, I wouldn't be your best friend, would I?"

She smiled sadly but it was still a smile. " Thanks, Sora. It's just that….oh gods, how do you explain this? I don't know, I just think he didn't mean to. He apologized later but…he touched me."

She looked at Sora, wavering, suddenly unsure. Sora knew she had not expected this from Riku, this sudden advance. He hadn't expected it either. What the heck was Riku doing?

" It was at the movie theaters, down at the mall," she continued, slowly but surely. " You know what…people do, right?"

She was turning as red as her hair. Sora knew already. " Yes…"

" But…he got…um…"

" Rough?"

" Sora!"

" What? Kairi, be honest with me, here, please," Sora sighed, sitting down abruptly in the grass and wincing at the wet squelch of his wet clothes. " Okay, he got rough. He didn't get that rough, did he?"

She crouched down next to him, looking out at the duck pond and the friar talking to the children's supervisors and parents. " He started touching me…in…places. And…it felt so weird, like…like he was invading me."

She said no more, sat down next to him. She pulled her knees up and put her chin on them. Sora watched her, the trouble and worry destroying the beauty in her face. He smiled slightly, tried to lift the damp mood. " Hey, it's alright. Did you…tell him?"

She shook her head, only said, " He knows. I didn't like it. But…it was like…he had total control over me, my soul and my body. He was in complete control…I felt so lost, out of touch with myself. Do you have any idea what it's like, to have someone be in complete control over your very being?"

Her words struck a chord in him. He knew, he knew everything. He knew how it felt to lose control of himself, to give up his will to the higher being. He knew; he never said anything. And he still didn't say a thing.

" Just…" What can he say? " Kairi, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry-"

" There's nothing for you to be sorry about, Sora," Kairi countered, placing a hand on his shoulder. " You had nothing to do with it."

" Kairi, you're my best friend. I have to feel something. There's no other way, not for me. Just…be careful, Kairi. If you get hurt, I don't know what I'll do."

She smiled. " I'm so glad you're my best friend, Sora."

Sighing, she leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Sora smiled, placed an arm around her shoulder, and held her close. Together they sat on the hill, staring out over the park, their worlds mended. Almost.

Sora felt something stir in him, felt the warmth and comfort of Kairi next to him. He had never been acutely aware of this and he didn't need to know…except he was starting to feel nervous, full of tension, and that something else he could not explain.

""

Monday. The last week before winter vacation and three weeks of cold misery.

_I can't wait._

Sora had a sarcastic smirk on his face as he trekked to school. But at the crossroads, he stopped as a wave of excruciating pain leached energy out of his limbs. Sora fell to his knees, suddenly rubber-legged and breathless. He blinked, watched the world sway, then everything came back into focus.

_What was that?_

He slowly got to his feet, then continued onward, finding it harder and harder to take each step. Suddenly he felt he was climbing a mountain, not strolling a few blocks to school. Sora frowned, puzzled, and scratched the back of his head. Shaking his head, he kept walking towards school, not noticing the strands of hair that fell on the sidewalk and drifted away in the wayward breeze. He couldn't look back; there was someone at school he was looking for, someone he had to talk to about Saturday night.

" Hey Sora!" Tidus shouted as he neared his friends.

" Yo, wazzup, man?" Wakka called out before Lulu slapped his shoulder to silence him.

The others waved to him, even Naminé, who was looking pinker than usual. He nodded to each of them, then saw Kairi. She was alone without Riku today; how strange. He stopped for a second, blinked in confusion, then kept on walking straight past them.

The others faltered in their frivolities as soon as they saw that Sora had other things in mind.

" Since when was Sora so focused on the Humanities Academy?" Leon demanded, upon seeing Sora heading towards where some of the classrooms were located.

All attention diverted – unfortunately – to the dark-haired teenager except for Kairi and Naminé. Both were staring after the guy, wondering the same thing.

_Where's he off to?_

''

"…of course I apologized," Riku snorted, firing a spitwad at a clique of freshmen. " Who would I be if I didn't?"

" Well, you know, I mean…never mind," Paine sighed, shrugging hopelessly.

" Don't see why you had to apologize," Lenne snorted before she resumed 'snogging' Shuyin.

" Hey, I've been with her two years already and I don't plan to lose her anytime soon – Sora?"

Everyone froze. Seifer, Rajin, and Fujin stopped their Texas Hold-em game; Zidane and Garnet turned around from their seats on the stone bench near the group's hangout near C Building, Zidane reaching into his pocket and pulling out a ready supply of rubber bands. Shuyin and Lenne broke apart to glare at the intruder but Paine mere rolled her eyes. " Here we go…again."

Sora froze as well, staring at each of them apprehensively. He saw Tifa, a little distance away, duck around the corner of C Building, clearly not wanting to be seen by neither him nor her friends.

What in- 

" What do you want, Sora?" Riku sighed, giving his group a glare to warn them off. " thought I apologized about Thurs-"

" No, not that," Sora interrupted, leaving Riku rather surprised. " Can I talk to you in private?"

" Why?" the older teenager demanded.

" Because…it's confidential so I can't just say it here," Sora muttered, starting to feel nervous. Could he do this?

" Oh fine, whatever," Riku rolled his eyes, then walked a good ten feet away from his friends. He motioned for Sora to join him, which required him to walk through the group.

Sora took a deep breath before the precarious drive and quickly strode through them, avoiding Fujin's foot but not Zidane's amazing flying rubber band. But the others left him alone, apparently not interesting in expending their energy to knock him down and beat him into a bloody pulp.

" Okay, what do you want, Sora?" Riku asked, crossing his arms and staring at the shorter teenager.

Sora, who was rather preoccupied with a painful burning in his calves and a shortness of breath, managed to say, " Remember the beach?"

Riku stared at him. " That's it?"

" No but I thought I'd ask," Sora explained, scratching the back of his head. " That's not why I'm here, Riku. It's about Kairi."

" What is this, another lecture on how to treat your best friend?" the silver-haired teenager groaned. " What do you want to-"

" Why did you do that to her, on Saturday night?" Sora asked, taking a deep breath and awaiting Riku's answer.

Riku stared at him, now quite shocked. " What, I'm not allowed to do that? She's my girlfriend, Sora. Two years already and halfway through the third. Don't you think-"

" She didn't like it at all, Riku. Don't do that ever again."

Sora saw anger appear on Riku's face and took a step back involuntarily. Then Riku was calm again…and smug. Huh?

" Listen, don't mess with my business, got that? She's my girlfriend. Besides, I already apologized."

" You think I don't know that?" Sora snapped, growing angry himself.

" She told you everything, didn't she? What I'd expect to happen; why didn't I think things that way before? Of course she'd tell you so you could come and kill me if you could for being her boyfriend. But here's a question for you, Sora: Why do you care?"

It hung in the morning air, thrown from one person to another. Sora froze, found himself unable to answer that simple question. He knew it was because she was his best friend but he found himself so tongue-tied he couldn't utter a simple sentence.

" B-because…she's my…best…best friend…" Sora gave up, didn't want to sound like a fool anymore.

" Think about it; why should you care? This isn't your business, Sora. This relationship is between Kairi and me, okay?"

Sora stared back stonily, couldn't nod yes or shake his head no.

" Whatever. Go away." Riku waved his hand at Sora to shoo him away as he returned to his friends.

Sora stared after him, stunned not only at Riku's attitude but at himself.

Why couldn't I answer his question? 

He slowly began to walk away in the opposite direction, towards where Tifa had hid herself. The junior turned to watch him but Sora found himself saying aloud," Cloud likes someone."

Tifa paled, rushed off, leaving Sora just standing there in the middle of the long covered hall that ran through the cafeteria and the buildings. Other students bumped and pushed him around but he remained standing.

_Why did I do that? How could I have done that? Was it because I was so angry at Riku I wanted to hurt someone? But why would I be so angry?_

He began to force himself through the endlessly flowing river of students, fought his way towards his friends. He had to figure out an excuse for his ignoring them; he knew this just wasn't like him to walk by them, ignoring their welcomes.

But something else nagged him, as he caught a glimpse of the others standing up and pulling their backpacks on.

" Why do you care?" 

**Author's Endnote**: That's end of Chapter 3. Expect Chapter 4 in about two weeks so I hope you don't mind the waiting game. In the meantime, please review and ask questions if you must; I'd love to answer them. Yes, sorry but I do prefer long reviews but if you can't write something that long – which I'm sure most of yo can't – I'll be happy with a nice, simple, short one. Thanks!


	6. Help

**Author's Note:** Sometimes your life schedule never quite makes it and you end up stalling and doing things later than supposed to. Actually, I kinda got stuck on how to write this chapter to get everything in, and succeeded after several weeks and fifteen pages. This chapter actually involved research and one of the classes I hate the most: Calculus AB. 'Course BC is worse but what can you do?

**Copyrights**: All characters belong to Square-Enix and Disney except for the teachers mentioned, which are based after real teachers in my life. Can you find Disney cameos, besides the obvious? There is also a surprise set of cameos and for this I give credit to Fox11. Cheers!

**Best Deceptions**

**Help**

"…that is why the integral of cosine _x_ is sine _x_," Mr. Rodriguez said as he closed the cap on the pen. " You know, the other day I was at the beach, the rocky place a little way up-"

" Did you catch anything?" Al al-Laddin called out as every student in the classroom perked up. Yes, another story! Keep talking, Mr. Rodriguez!

" No, no, no, that's not the point," the bug-eyed teacher shook his head. " I was parking on the side of the road to go fishing…and there was this big ol' green van parked on the opposite side. I was watching it because I thought there was something wrong with it. The thing was, it was moving back and forth like this-"

As he demonstrated using his hands, the class roared with laughter.

"-and then it stopped. For several minutes nothing happened, then a lady came out of the van. She was like sixty!"

The classroom filled with raucous laughter, drowning out the rest of the sentence.

" That's just nasty," Yuna sighed, shaking her head. " Where the hell does Mr. R go on weekends?"

" When he's not drinking his Sam Adams and mowing the lawn?" Mickey cracked. Kairi and Mina burst into laughter but they were easily drowned out by their fellow classmates, who were busy laughing at Mr. Rodriguez's next part of the tale.

"…so I let it go. Thirty minutes later, my line gets hit. I've snagged another fish, so I reel it in. It was the same fish! Same size, same hook in the mouth, everything! So I thought, " Man, these fish are really biting today!" So I let it go and guess what happens fifteen minutes later?"

The class continued to roar; if Mr. Rodriguez wasn't talking about his impressive gun collection, including his AK-47s, he'd be talking about his fishing escapades. What made his students love his stories, besides the fact they were wasting time in class, was that they got to do other stuff, like chat with their friends or do their homework. Or sleep, which was exactly what Sora was doing. Luckily for him, the computer monitor on his desk was big enough to even hide his messy hair from view. Then again, mostly everyone was partially hidden by the computer monitors on their desks.

" Sora?" Kairi turned to him for the first time since class began. She sighed when she saw he was sleeping. " Sora, are you sleeping again?"

" Dozing in Mr. R's class?" Yuna asked in disbelief. " Does he want to die or something?"

" Must be really tired to be that knocked out in Biology, too," Mickey thought, then reached over and poked him on the head. " Yo, wake up. You're sleeping in Mr. R's class."

He poked Sora's head again and finally elicited a response.

"…don't touch me…" Sora muttered, pulling his head behind his arms.

" Sora, wake up," Mina said sweetly. " Class is going to begin."

"…stop it…" was the mumbled reply.

" Sora," Yuna sighed. " I'm going to smack you on the head with my book if you don't wake up."

"…leave me alone…don't touch me…stay away…please…"

Kairi stared at him, saw the others eyeing him oddly. Then she spotted Mr. Rodriguez write something on the board.

" Sora," she whispered, touching his arm. " Sora, wake up."

She nearly gasped out loud when he reached out and grabbed her hand. She tugged at her hand, tried to pry his fingers off but he held on tightly.

" Sora!" she hissed. " Sora-"

"…don't leave me…"

She froze. What did he just say? He was still in deep sleep; could he be having a nightmare? But how can Sora have a nightmare? How could her best friend, that smiling, cheerful, encouraging teenager, be frightened?

" Sora," she whispered hurriedly as Mr. Rodriguez continued his lecture and she found herself missing all of it. _Now I'll have to practically move into Riku's house to have him help me with my homework!_ " Sora, wake up. C'mon, class started. Sora, please."

Sora's hand shifted as he stirred and tilt his head. One blue eye studied her from under sunburnt brown bangs.

"…what?" he murmured drowsily.

" You fell asleep in Mr. R's class," Kairi informed him while trying to pull her hand out his grasp as subtly as possible and finding it not one bit possible. " Are you okay? You look pale."

" I'm fine, I'm fine," he replied softly, waving aside the matter. He then stifled a yawn. " So tired…"

" Keep this up and you'll never pass the 10th grade," Kairi smiled. " And I wonder why you find Bio and Calc to be so hard."

" Mmm…" Sora closed his eyes. " Wait…this is Calc?"

Kairi stared at him. " Well, yeah. You forgot?"

" I…" Sora sat up abruptly and looked around. His timing was miraculously perfect; Mr. Rodriguez had his back to the class and he was busy questioning what the hell he wrote on the board. "…I don't know."

Apparently genuinely puzzled, he looked down and suddenly realized he was holding Kairi's hand. He stiffened and Kairi felt him tremble slightly. Before she could get a good look at his face he quickly pulled his hand away and turned his head. " What were we doing?"

As puzzled as she was over his odd behavior, she was quite shocked by his question. " Integrals. Weren't you paying attention Don't you remember?"

Sora was silent for a few seconds.

" No."

""

" Does it ever snow here?" Irvine asked curiously, wondering why he seemed to be the only person in the whole school wandering around in 'summer' clothes. He eyed everybody else, who were mostly shivering, and wearing sweaters and jackets.

" You idiot, we live next to a tropical island!" Selphie all but shouted. " This is our winter; better get used to it!"

Irvine stared at her. " Is she always like this in the winter?"

" Unfortunately," Leon snorted, eliciting a laugh from Rinoa.

" So…what are you guys planning to do during Winter Break?" Irvine questioned, as clueless as ever.

" Sleep until the sun dies," Tidus declared.

" Party every day," Wakka grinned.

" The mall!" Yuffie shrieked.

" Some of us go down to the beach every winter," Lulu said calmly, looking at Yuffie with disapproval. " Winter at the beach is actually quite nice."

" The beach?" Irvine repeated. " Isn't it _cold_?"

He looked at everyone, obviously wondering if they were mad.

" Living up north for eleven years must've really gotten into your head," Yuna decided while Yuffie made a point of tapping him on the head. " Here it's actually warmer by the beach so a lot of people go there for Christmas vacation."

" Oh…" Irvine nodded. " So…who's going?"

" Lulu and I are going," Wakka grinned, pulling an arm around his very Gothic girlfriend. " Got invited to my cousin's place."

" I'm going," Naminé said quietly as she continued to draw in her sketchbook. Her face seemed very pink, oddly enough, but no one really bothered to ask.

" Dad's taking me to the national blitzball finals, the Nation Division," Tidus grinned. " Beats the beach _any_ day!"

" I'm going with my guardian to a shrine in the mountains," Yuna said quietly, looking slightly solemn. " We're staying there for a week, then we're going down to the beach, too."

" Staying home, playing Final Fantasy Tactics," Cloud said shortly. " Game's pissing the hell outta me."

" I'm going east for two weeks," Aerith remarked, ignoring the sidelong glance Cloud was giving her,

" Whatever," Leon muttered, turning away.

" The beach," Rinoa smiled. " I'm going with my mother's parents."

" We're going to stake out at the mall!" Selphie and Yuffie giggled and shouted in perfect unison. " Going there every day!"

" My parents own a beach house," Riku said coolly. " We go there every winter."

He looked at Kairi, who smiled and added, " His family invited me so I guess I'll be seeing most of you guys at the beach."

" Awesome," Irvine nodded, though he looked rather depressed. " Man…what the hell am I gonna be doing? Oh, hey, Sora, what about you?"

He looked the teenager, who had been oddly silent for the whole entire conversation. It became apparent, though, that he wasn't even paying attention to them; he was leaning against the brick pillar, looking like a sentinel over all their backpacks, and he was sleep, his chin touching his chest and his arms crossed. He opened his eyes and looked up, though, when he heard his name. " What?"

" Hey sleepyhead, wake up," Riku joked, punching him on the shoulder. " Missing out on something here."

" Oh…what did I miss?"

Everyone blinked at him. Yuna then said very tentatively, " Weren't you listening?"

Sora thought for a moment. Trouble fell over his rather thin face and he slowly shook his head. " No, I don't know."

He looked sideways, spotted a potential fight between two groups of juniors and seniors a distance away from them, and said, " I was paying attention to _that_."

" Oh?" Yuffie stared at them.

" A fight?" Wakka exclaimed. " Sweet…"

" That's-" Kairi began.

"-not a good thing," Sora finished quietly, earning a smile from her worried face.

" So…what are you doing come Winter Break?" Irvine pressed on. " Maybe I can get my dad to drive me to a shooting range every day or something…"

Sora shrugged, shifted uncomfortably on his feet. " Staying home…"

" But you always stay home," Kairi pointed out. " Don't you ever go anywhere?"

Sora shook his head. " My aunts don't like to travel."

He turned away, looked elsewhere. There was an odd wistful look on his face, though his eyes remained strangely blank.

" Are you alright?" Aerith asked worriedly. " You don't look so good."

Sora tried to smile but that proved tiring. " Just…tired, I guess."

" Hey man, you need to wake up," Wakka said, slapping him on the shoulder. " You missing out on the fun, brudda! I mean, you don't even go to the mall with us anymore!"

Sora shrugged, only said, " I was tired."

Rinoa, upon hearing this, then gave Leon a suspicious eye. The dark-haired teenager didn't realize it for a few minutes, then saw her and demanded, " What!"

She pointed an accusing finger at him. " He's starting to sound like you. Is this some "Leon" disease spreading around or something? What did you do to him?"

Leon stared at her for what seemed like forever, stunned and utterly confused. When he finally seemed to regain his bearings, he stuttered, " W-what are…wha are you t-talking about? I-I didn't do anything!"

Rinoa then grinned and smacked him on the shoulder. " You idiot, I was just joking!"

The others started to laugh. Leon, turning red with embarrassment, scratched his head and sighed in defeat. Selphie was laughing hardest of all.

" Ha ha ha, you fell for that one – ha – you dork – ha ha…"

Cloud hid a smirk but Leon knew he was laughing at him, too. " That's not funny!"

" You poor thing," Yuna said sympathetically, patting him on the shoulder. " You poor, poor gullible thing."

Leon pulled away and snatched his backpack from the pile. " Why do I even bother…"

The bell rang.

''

"…BUT even the good things like Beauty and Kindness refused to go with Everyman!" Mr. Hartmire boomed, walking up and down the center aisle of the classroom like a madman. " So…what does this tell us about the Catholic Church? Huh? Huh?"

The wide-eyed Literature teacher stopped his pacing to search for hands. Spotting one of his favorite victims, Mr. Hartmire shouted, " Jack!"

" What's that, you say?" the pale, bony teenager asked, sitting up straight. The towering teenager whirled around in his seat to look at others frantically, then looked at Mr. Hartmire. " Um…yes?"

Somewhere in the back, someone snickered, " Jack's on crack!"

" Mr. Skellington, go home and get some coffee, you insane insomniac," Mr. Hartmire sighed, rubbing his face with his hand, while the class roared with laughter. Then he spotted a hand. " You have something to say, Axel?"

Everyone froze.

" Yeah, about that question you just asked," the redhead punk grinned as he sat on the edge of his seat. " I just wanna say that the Church is on crack, dissing everything, even if the moon was shining upside down on your ass and you feel good or somethin'-"

The classroom seemed to shake with ceaseless laughter.

" Damn sonofabitch stole my line!" Tidus swore.

Kairi giggled at the statement. Truth was, it was something Mr. Rodriguez had told his Calculus class and it was too funny not to tell other people.

" This is stupid," Cloud muttered and fumed, slamming his pen on the desk and staring at the half-hearted attempt to answer the day's Review And Preview.

Mickey, who shared the same Humanities classes as they did, then raised his hand.

" Yes, Mickey?" Mr. Hartmire barked.

" The Catholic Church-" he was drowned out by a chorus of boos but Mr. Hartmire's death glare silenced them "- made the point that the only thing that oculd save one's soul were good deeds and the only way to purify oneself was through confession."

" Exactly!" the teacher shouted. Everyone jumped up in their seats. " _That_ was the point of the play Everyman! The Catholic Church wanted to scare the dumb peasants into coming to church. Now, the handouts I just passed out were written a little while after Everyman and also involved the Catholic Church, though I must say the reading is more interesting! This packet is a collection of very famous stories written by a man named Geoffrey-yes, Sora?"

Sora shifted slightly in his seat, propping up his wavering left arm with his right elbow. " C-can I go to the restroom?"

Mr. Hartmire stared at him rather oddly, then said, " Go ahead. Just don't let the policewoman catch you."

The teenager nodded slightly, then stood up unsteadily on his feet. He balanced himself with the table, then walked slowly to the classroom door as Mr. Hartmire began his lecture on the packet of papers he had passed out in the beginning of class. Briefly he looked around, then nodded slightly and with reassurance when he saw the concerned look on Kairi's face.

Nothing's wrong with me, really… 

He opened the door, stepped outside quietly, then closed it. But a few steps down the hall and he doubled up, overwhelmed by an excruciating wave of pain. His knees shook, then collapsed under him.

" Goddammit," he swore, his voice shaking. " What's wrong with me…"

He pushed himself back onto his feet and slowly made his way outside the building, using the locker knobs on the wall as support. With every step he took, he felt more lightheaded and his very empty stomach roiled his innards. The pain was killing him.

He staggered out of the building, propped himself up on a brick pillar that helped support the roof of the walkway that ran through the school. He breathed hard, tried to catch his breath, and then tried to cross over to the other building, where the boy's restroom was.

He never made it.

Something suddenly tickled his throat and Sora coughed violently. He felt something was punching him in the stomach. He covered his hand to muffle the cough, felt his knees weaken as his body shook. He felt something warm hit his hand and he pulled it back to stare at it.

Sora stared at the bloody flecks on his palm. He moved his tongue around his mouth, tasted an overwhelming load of iron. He coughed again and tasted more blood.

" Oh my god…" he whispered, then had another coughing fit. It wrenched his stomach, twisted it so hard pain exploded in every corner of his body. Sora collapsed onto the ground, spitting up blood. He tried to get up but his limbs shook violently, wouldn't support his own weight.

" Somebody…anybody…" Sora gasped, tried to shout, "…help me…_please_…"

His voice faded and the world darkened.

""

"…learning about it in Mr. Frame's class very soon, if not already starting it," Mr. Hartmire stated, pacing in front of the whiteboard. " It is the third most important religious pilgrimage site, after Jerusalem and Rome! Now, I ask that none of you go and mention any of this to Mr. Frame; if he overhears and gets me, all of you are dead!"

" What if you're already dead?" Tidus blurted, " Then can we tell him?"

Mr. Hartmire glared at him until Tidus finally stopped smiling like an idiot.

" Andrew, do you have your bat with you?"

" Nope, sorry Mr. Hartmire," Andrew answered with a shrug. " Not today."

" Damn it!" Mr. Hartmire swore and everybody laughed, even Tidus.

Over the laugher they could hear sirens. The wails were faint but with every minute they were getting louder.

" Must be Miller High School," Mr. Hartmire remarked, referring to the nearby school for disabled and handicapped students. " And where's that Hamasaki?"

Everyone looked around, at his empty seat, at the papers on his desk, at his black backpack.

" Sora's gone for marijuana," that same someone cracked, obviously trying to rhyme. Everyone started to laugh again, even Jack who himself was the brunt of one of such similar jokes.

" That's not funny," Cloud heard Kairi mutter as she shuffled her papers into a neat pile. " That's not funny at all…"

The whole class suddenly fell silent as they heard metal screech, as though someone was opening the school bus gates open. Then they heard equipment moving swiftly about, hushed unintelligent muttering, then footsteps rushing away.

" Maybe not Miller High," Mr. Hartmire decided. " Alright, pack up. Better get started on the reading; tomorrow there's going to be a huge RAP."

He walked to the back of the class and sat down in his chair. With his Jamba Juice in hand, he resumed reading _Hamlet_.

Kairi looked at Tidus and Cloud. " Where's Sora?"

Tidus shrugged. " I didn't exactly implant a tracking device in him, Kairi. I don't know-"

" He hasn't been looking well for a while," Cloud muttered. " Maybe he's being sick to his stomach in the restroom or…"

He let the sentence hang, le the others come to their own conclusions.

" No, you're just crazy," Tidus said, rolling his eyes. " It's nothing drastic; I mean, c'mon, its only Sora!"

" Well, I guess I'll pack his stuff and take it with us to Lambeau, then, huh?" Kairi sighed, and set about shuffling his papers.

''

" Where's Sora?" Naminé asked curiously as lunch commenced, everyone gathered, and the shy teenager took up the task of counting heads while drawing at the same time.

" Don't know," Cloud said coolly as Kairi set down two backpacks, a purple one and a black one. " Said he was going to the restroom but never came back."

" What, Sora ditching school?" Wakka cracked. " That's a first!"

" Did you hear the sirens?" Yuffie exclaimed. " Mr. Kim got all pissed because the ambulance was right outside our class! He's so funny when he's mad-"

" Ambulance?" Riku demanded. " There was an accident at school?"

The others shrugged and Rinoa was heard saying, " Definitely not my Chemistry class."

" I wonder what happened," Selphie mused seriously, looking very un-Selphie-like at the moment.

" You always wonder what happened," Irvine said, rolling his eyes and very conveniently missing the slight pink on her face.

" Hey, who thinks Chemistry is stupid?" Aerith suddenly blurted. Everyone started at her, though Rinoa did raise her hand in agreement. The brown-haired teenager smiled sheepishly. " What? I was just asking…"

" Why? What happened?" Lulu asked.

" We were doing a lab," Aerith began matter-of-factly. " And my partner was that idiot, Pete-"

" Pete!" Wakka, Tidus, Kairi, Yuna, Selphie, and Yuffie all shouted.

" Uh…yeah, why?" Aerith questioned while everybody else backed up quickly at the outburst. Students around them eyed them oddly and some simply rushed away as quickly as possible.

" Jerkwad," Yuna growled.

" Bastard," Yuffie added.

" Oh yeah, he's a real S.O.B., alright," Selphie agreed.

" Always picking on us," Tidus explained. " He picks on me 'cuz I'm blond, he picks on Wakka 'cuz he's got an accent, he picks on Selphie for being an airhead, he picks on Yuffie because she thinks she's a ninja, he picks on Yuna for being smart, he picks on Kairi for being too nice, he picks on Sora for being pathetic, an idiot, a bigmouth, a weakling, stupid, dumb, less-than-human, and did I say pathetic? I'm sure I'm missing more, but he always did love kicking around Sora-"

" Why is it _always_ about Sora?" Riku suddenly asked.

Now everyone was staring at him.

" He's our buddy, in case you've forgotten," Wakka answered menacingly. " See, we have a philosophy here, which is if someone busts any of our friends, we bust their asses."

" You should've seen the food fight in fifth grade," Kairi murmured with a smile. " Someone poured grape juice on my head. Mom got so mad."

" Mom packed coconut cream pie that day," Yuna grinned darkly. She didn't look like herself at all, and Tidus backed away quickly, though his blue eyes shamelessly kept staring at her face. " Great stuff. Too bad Pete never knew who threw it."

" Can I finish my story?" Aerith whined, feeling forgotten.

" Oh, sure! Whatever you say!" Yuffie shouted.

" Well, anyways, Pete's a real jerk and a misogynist. You know, a sexist," Aerith started again. " Always ordering me about, telling me to write everything down and do everything, while lounging around and chatting with his 'homey' Hades on the cell. Then when he finally did _something_ he got boiling water all over my leg-"

" What!" Cloud shouted, outraged. " What did that sonofabitch do!"

" Cloud!" Aerith warned, but Cloud didn't hear – or heed – her.

" What did that bastard do? That's boiling water! Are you okay? Did it hurt? Did you go to the nurse? Did that fucking bastard get busted? Are you-"

" Cloud's concerned for another person?" Leon gasped in shock. " Cloud, how could you, betraying your persona and all?"

Everybody else was now lost as hell. First Cloud was not acting like himself, being all vocal and agitated over Aerith's mishap. Then Leon was joking and poking fun at Cloud's apparent other side?

" I…don't think that's the Squall Disease," Yuffie finally decided, making use of Leon's real name, as the two friends started bickering with each other, Leon grinning strangely and Cloud looking awkwardly red. Yuna elbowed Aerith mischievously but the brown-haired girl didn't look as happy.

Naminé sighed and backed away from the squabbling boys. Her shoulder bumped someone and she muttered an apology as she resumed sketching. It was only when she realized the person didn't go away that she looked up.

" Riku!" she all but shrieked, backing away quickly. She felt herself turn red; did he see her whole drawing?

" You naughty girl," Riku taunted. " And I thought you were an innocent and pure angel. But Naminé, how could you?"

Naminé gulped, tried to hide her drawing of Sora. " You-you didn't see anything-"

" You really like him, don't you?" Riku questioned, interrupting her. " You really like him but you're too scared to approach him. Why don't you?"

Naminé stared at him. " What are you saying?"

" The guy's starting to get on my nerves. Always bothering me about Kairi. I'm beginning to think there's something funny going on with him."

" He _likes_ Kairi?" Naminé gasped, looking incredibly crestfallen.

" Well, no," Riku scowled. " That's just wrong. How the hell can you like someone you've known your whole life? I think he's getting way too overprotective, especially since he doesn't have something to occupy him…or someone."

Riku looked pointedly at Naminé's sketch, apparently knew how she was drawing Sora: shirtless.

" B-but-"

" You have the rest of this year and two more after that," Riku smiled, apparently enjoying Naminé's reaction to his suggestion. " So don't screw up."

" Um…okay…um…thanks, I guess," the blonde teenager muttered, flushing bright red. Then she looked around. " Where's Kairi?"

Riku shrugged, obviously knew what she was up to and where she went. " Probably went off looking for him. Now something is _definitely_ wrong if you don't show any care for your best friend."

" Oh…" Naminé sighed. " I hope he's okay…"

''

"…that's really weird," Daisy finally decided after Kairi explained the situation.

That was after Mina tried to calm the redhead down; she was practically hyperventilating by the time she found Mickey's group.

" He's nowhere!" Kairi shouted. " I've gone through every hall, passed by every locker, when through the P.E. area, checked the main office and the college office, and he's not there! It's like he disappeared into thin air, like he never existed, except for the fact I'm lugging his backpack around. So I know he's out there, but he hasn't come back for his backpack so where'd he"

" Der…" Goofy thought, pushing his orange hat back onto the top of his head before it slid off. " What about them sirens?"

" Sirens?" Donald repeated.

" Oh, you mean during third period," Mina recalled. " Oh yeah…it was for Istara, not Miller, so-"

" Sora got hurt?" Kairi demanded. " Is that what you're saying?"

" Well, think about it, Kairi," Mickey said quietly. " Sora hasn't been looking well for days, unless all of us are really blind, and I'm sure this is more than just a coincidence-"

" It's just sirens," Goofy shrugged. " Maybe he didn't feel well so he ended up going home. Where does he live?"

Everyone looked at Kairi, who had a blank and shameful look on her face.

" I-I don't know."

""

" He's a kid. Big deal. Probably knocked himself out doing pot with his friends," the tall, middle-aged scruffy man said impatiently, tapping his cane on the floor and rolling his eyes at the dark-haired, severe woman. She was undeterred by his attitude, however, and said, " I'm giving his case to you."

" What? I don't deal with the dumb stuff, if you recall what my department is for-" the man protested, hobbling after her while she strode to the nurse's office in the middle of the hall and picked up a blue folder.

" Sora Hamasaki. 15-years-old. Found on the ground outside in the school hall at 11:11 AM. Apparently was vomiting blood before passing out."

" Blood?" the man repeated, not protesting when she shoved the folder into his free hand. " I bet it's red paint or something-"

" Just because you're the head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicines doesn't mean you can avoid normal cases," the woman interrupted sharply. " You're the only free doctor around here-" the man snorted at this "-and this isn't a big case, not like the one you're dealing with right now."

" Fine, whatever you say, _Master_," the doctor rolled his eyes. He then fingered the folder suspiciously. " This folder's thinner than usual-"

" He's one of those special cases."

" Special ed? Go figure. Must've eaten the wrong thing but usually-"

" No. He's an orphan. He's being raised by two aunts from his father's side. They're both unmarried, and are among the lower income-"

" Wait," the doctor said, flipping the folder open. " Hamasaki…you mean that couple that died in that bizarre car accident years ago?"

" Yes."

" Then how the hell is this kid living with-"

" It's called a will, House. People at their status aren't usually idiots like you. Now are you going to check him or not?"

House rolled his eyes.

" Whatever you say, _Master_ Cuddy."

He hobbled away towards the elevator.

" The fourth circle of hell…"

''

" The lady just came in with a rash," the black doctor pointed out as House strode into his office, followed by him and two other doctors.

" What the hell are those?" House demanded, stopping and staring at the bowl of candy canes.

" Candy canes," the young woman doctor next to him pointed out the obvious.

" Candy _canes_? Are you mocking me?" House demanded, obviously referring to the cane he used as his third leg.

" No. It-it's Christmas, and I-" she tried to explain. " I thought-"

" Relax. It's a joke," House rolled his eyes.

" Isn't the prognosis for Churg-Strauss a bit grim?" the black doctor demanded.

" Yeah," Cameron, the woman doctor, confirmed. " Untreated, only 33 of patients survive past a year. Treated – five years."

" Then I definitely suggest treatment," House determined as he cleaned his mug at the sink in the room.

" If it was any other attending doctor, I'd say that he made a mistake," Foreman, the black doctor, said, " and gave her too much epinephrine."

" Saying you wouldn't say it was my mistake," House suggested as he poured coffee into his mug, " is saying it was my mistake."

Foreman shrugged and reached for a candy cane. " Everyone screws up. Your rule. I _think_ you fit within the subset of 'everyone.'"

" I didn't screw up," House countered immediately. " Order a chest C.T. and start the sister on prednisone-40 milligrams T.I.D."

" The sister?" the third doctor, a blond Australian who went by the last name of Chase, remarked.

" Oh, didn't I mention?" House asked casually. " The patient's a nun – Sister Augustine."

" I hate nuns," Chase muttered darkly.

" Who doesn't?" House offered. He then strode out the door. But once outside, he seemed to think for a second, then turned around and stuck his head back into the office.

" If you hate nuns," House began, " then avoid her for the moment."

The three young doctors stared at him, wondering, _What the fuck does that mean?_

" Cuddy gave me another _jolly_ case, a real minor one. Chase, why don't you deal with that one? Oh, and just because she gave me candy _canes_, Cameron can go with you, too. Foreman can do all the work."

" What!" Foreman yelled, turning on House, but he was already hobbling away.

''

" Since when did kids get ulcers?" Chase asked as he prepared the antibiotics.

" Schools are becoming more demanding than ever," Cameron informed calmly as she wiped the teenager's forehead; there was a slight fever but it was nothing serious. " Kids get sick easier, due to the stress. When we say school can kill, its pretty true."

" Can it starve them?" Chase remarked, finding he could easily make a circle with his fingers around the middle of the forearm. " Wait…"

He turned the arm over and his blue eyes beheld a series of faint scars running up the arm. " Great. This guy's either suicidal or I don't want to know."

" Really?" Cameron flipped through the folder. " No history of depression. Pretty straight, healthy kid…until today, apparently."

Chase didn't even hear her. He pushed the sleeve of the shirt all the way up and noted the remains of what could only have been a large gash. He then nodded to Cameron. " Check his whole arm."

" Why in the world do you want me to – oh God…"

" If he was suicidal, he'd be dead already, given what he's got on himself," Chase decided. " Abuse?"

" Could explain why his record's so….blank. If he got hurt, if he was perfectly okay, they wouldn't take him to the hospital. Given the status of his living conditions, I doubt they want to spend money. But still…" Cameron put the folder down on the table next to the hospital bed, then pulled back the hospital bed sheets. She pulled up the teenager's shirt and saw a storm of scars. " Oh my God…"

" Should we report this?" Chase wondered.

" How could he live like this for, and for so long?" Cameron wondered as she covered the teenager again. " He's got to be one tough kid…or he's just hanging in for something."

" Or someone," Chase said. " I'll go tell House we're keeping him for a few days to fix the ulcer and get his weight back up. This guy's _way_ too thin."

Cameron nodded, as Chase strode out of the room. Once he was gone, she sighed and sat down in the chair next to the teenager. She smiled at the handsome but gaunt face, wondered why he was putting himself through so much trouble. " Poor kid, he's got a tough life…"

The teenager stirred, opened brilliant blue eyes. Cameron watched while he lay there, blinking, staring at the ceiling. He looked very blank.

" You're at the hospital," Cameron said gently. " You had an ulcer. We're treating you for it right now. We're also giving you the nutrients you need; you're underweight and you're lucky we got you. In a few days, you'll be okay and we'll send you home."

The teenager was silent for a few minutes.

" How'd I get here?"

Cameron blinked at the odd question. " Well that's what we ought to ask you. What happened? How'd you get here?"

The teenager turned his head and looked at her. Then he turned back to the ceiling. " It was accidental but some woman thought I touched her and hit me in the stomach. She was wearing a white coat, pink shirt, dark pants. Really professional. Probably insulted her or something."

" Oh really?" Cameron asked, intrigued. " And where did this happen?"

" A hall, with a white ceiling and windows," the teenager declared.

" You were found at a school. There are no halls with white ceilings and-"

" Cameron, go run some tests. Don't want myself to make a mistake now, do we?" House said, hobbling in. He then eyed the teenager. " I was listening to the conversation. Very interesting. How'd you get here?"

The teenager answered quite truthfully, " An old man with a cane hit me in the stomach. Really rude old man, too."

Cameron stared at the teenager, then to House's three legs. House grinned grimly as he spun his cane on his fingers.

" Damaged brain, caused by insufficient diet. No new memories or ideas; people use visuals to fill in the missing gaps. Ring any bells?"

Cameron sighed, tired to figure it out.

" Korsakoff's Syndrome. Start him on thiamine and he'll bounce back real fast. And keep him on all those goodies, if we don't want him wandering around wondering who the hell he is."

Cameron nodded, then strode out of the hospital room. House looked at the teenager, who was starting to look sleepy. He then hobbled out of the room, only to be stopped by Cameron, who obviously got no further than out the door.

" I need to talk to you about him."

""

Thursday morning found Mickey and his friends hanging around with Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Yuna, Lulu, Irvine, Leon, Rinoa, Cloud, Aerith, Naminé, and Yuffie. A group of oblivious freshmen staked a claim on their territory, forcing them to move elsewhere and find another spot to hang out at for a while.

"…so how do you tell a woman with a size 14 that she's putting herself through torture with a size 6 jeans?" Yuffie was half-shouting, half-laughing. Most others were laughing with her, but a few close friends from elementary school days were rather uncomfortable, shifting slightly on their feet and looking around.

Moments earlier they had seen Riku and Kairi walk by, the tall teenager's arm around her shoulders and holding her close. He seemed rather intent on walking straight into school and go somewhere but Kairi stopped momentarily. She looked straight at them and her violet-blue eyes skimmed over them. Then she paled slightly and started biting her lip before Riku led her away.

Sora had not come. He was rarely, if ever, absent but today he had not shown up.

" Weird," Mickey muttered, running a hand through his straight black hair.

" What is?" Donald asked, as he fiddled with his blue cap again.

" The way things are," he replied.

" Kairi's wearing long sleeves," Mina noted as she brushed back her black hair and didn't notice Mickey watching her. " I wonder why…"

" It's winter," Daisy rolled her eyes. " I mean, I'm wearing long sleeves and I love short sleeves."

Mina looked oddly unconvinced. " This whole…situation. I don't like it. I'll have to ask Kairi about it later during P.E. "

" What situation?" Goofy remarked.

Mina smiled. " Girl talk."

" Damn!" Mickey swore jokingly.

If Mina said " Girl talk," nothing would ever come out of it.

""

" Is House talking to a _sane_ patient?" Foreman demanded as he, Cameron, and Chase stood outside a patient's room. Through the half-closed blinds, they could see House sitting next to the bed, looking thoughtful while the patient's mouth seemed to move.

" I wonder why…" Cameron agreed. " You think he'd be asking about the scars?"

" Now why would he do that?" Chase remarked. " I thought you knew House."

Cameron sighed, then turned to leave. " Aren't we supposed to get the MRI?"

The other two doctors followed her. They didn't realize House was watching them the entire time. But once they had vanished down the hall, he rose to his feet, hobbled to the glass door, and slid it shut.

" Now that those annoying _pests_ are gone to see if they got coal in their stockings, let's talk," House said as he hobbled back to his seat. " Your name?"

The teenager watched him with apprehension. His blue eyes studied the folder on the table next to him. " You have the folder. Why are you asking?"

" Hm…don't like to stand out, do you?" the scruffy man mused. " That's okay; I don't, either. At least I don't _try_ to. People always notice me. Must be my leg. But that's not why I'm here.

" We were diagnosing you with ulcer and Korsakoff's Syndrome, which apparently was starting to kick in two days ago and played your memory one. Two of my doctors, however, found scars, all over your body. Now, do you have something to say about that?"

The wild-haired teenager studied him carefully, while his right hand went to his chest and touched what House knew was a scar. " No."

House studied the brilliant blue eyes carefully, until the teenager looked away. " If you don't say anything, I will have to make a call to Child Services. They will take you away and put you in a new home…but of course, I assume you _do_ want to leave your miserable life with your aunts, correct?"

The teenager continued to look away, obviously studying the blankets covering him. Then he whispered something.

" Sorry, didn't catch that."

The teenager grasped the bed sheet tightly in his hand. " I can't leave. I can never leave."

" Well, physically, it is possible," House stated matter-of-factly. " Or is there something _else_ involved in this apparent attraction to abuse?"

The teenager turned his head slightly, so that one blue eye studied his own. There was a frown on his face and House knew he hit his mark. " Girl?"

" No," he answered softly and coldly. " A _friend_."

" Oh? And who is this 'friend' who just _loves_ to see you get kicked around like that-"

" Nobody knows. And if you say anything…"

" I won't," House promised, knowing it'll just open the teenager up. " Now, could you elaborate a little more? Who is this 'friend'?"

" …why do you care?"

House kept watching him. " Because you make it obvious that you do."

He was more than amused when the teenager flushed red. But teenager refused to say more; it seemed the teenager preferred to keep to himself. House decided there wasn't much more he could do and rose to his feet. " Listen, there is no point in subjecting yourself to further abuse. I don't care if you're living through it for someone, anyone in fact. You don't deserve it. Do you hear me? I know who you are, and I know that you don't deserve to live this way. And don't give me the "It's my fault" psychological explanation because I'm not going to buy it. I don't believe in that philosophy and I don't think anybody should. We're releasing you tomorrow so I suggest you enjoy the sleep while you can get it."

He limped towards the door.

" I have nowhere to go."

House turned around. " Of course you do! That's what Child Services are for!"

" That's not it," the teenager whispered hurriedly. " If I leave…I'll be leaving my life behind."

" Oh for God's sake, you call that a life-"

" My friends are my family. It's like…my best friend…is my sister. I can't leave her, I just…I just can't."

House thought for a moment, then cocked his head to the side. " You could just say you love her-"

" I don't!" the teenager protested vehemently, roused by the allegations. " We're just friends. _Friends!_ I may be a guy but guys do have friends who are girls. Adults, always thinking there's some chemistry between a guy and a girl when they could be just _friends_! Besides, she's already got a boyfriend."

" Hm…you didn't have to add in that last part. But I'll leave you to think on it. Enjoy sitting there wondering at the cruelties of life. Tootles."

House stepped outside the patient's room and closed the door.

" Well, that was an interesting conversation you had there," Dr. Wilson, oncologist and House's best friend, remarked casually as he waited at the counter.

" I love giving people advice. It's just so fun seeing people screw themselves over, you know?" House answered with a smile.

" I hope you didn't tell him anything stupid."

" Nah…too sympathetic for that."

"…but you're never sympathetic."

" Exactly."

''

" That Hamasaki kid left two hours ago," Foreman announced during a quiet lull following the discovery of a copper cross buried within the nun.

" Is that so?" House asked with mild interest as he poured fresh coffee into his mug.

" He's not ready to leave the hospital," Chase snorted with surprise at the hospital's stupidity. " He's not strong enough-"

" His aunts came," Cameron informed them. Her eyes were shining with shock and fear. " They just whisked him off…didn't want him there any longer. It's just unbelievable how they treat him in public. It's like they were never together outside their home before."

" That's probably it," House muttered but he took care not to be heard.

" Shouldn't we tell Child Services about it?" Foreman questioned. " After all, those scars on his body are proof enough-"

" He's not going to leave them," House interrupted loudly. " He _can't_."

" Well, why can't he leave them? I mean, look at what they did to him, and starve him, even- "Chase began in shock but House quickly interrupted him

" Are all Australians deaf or something? I just said he _can't_. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. Said something noble about 'friends are family'. No idea if it's just the noble spirit of the holidays but I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in a few months _dead_."

" Well that's rude!" Cameron retorted sharply. " Maybe he's really close to his friends, rely on them for everything his aunts won't give him-"

" If that was the case, he wouldn't be as emaciated as he was when he came in," House remarked. " Can we please drop the case now? He's gone from this hospital, Sister Augustine will be gone in a day or two, and it's the holidays. Where's the spirit, people?"

He put on a mock grin on his face but the other three doctors were looking bothered.

" It's just a case," the older doctor groaned, smacking himself on the forehead. " Why the long faces?"

" Y'know, I heard something really interesting yesterday, when I was in the room checking up on his stats," Chase said, looking at Cameron and Foreman. House practically pouted when Chase didn't look at him, too, but the Australian failed to notice.

" Talking in his sleep?" Foreman questioned. " What did he say?"

Chase pondered for a few minutes.

" I'm sorry, are you going to say something or are you going to stay silent just to heighten the drama?" House demanded, breaking the thin ice.

" Give us a break, House," Cameron said. " We were kids just a few years ago. Don't you think that's reason enough to think about that teenager's problems?"

" Oh, I forgot I'm practically a dinosaur around you silly Cro-Magnons," House rolled his eyes. " Roar!"

Foreman and Cameron stared at him with shock. Foreman then sighed. " Oh my God, it _must_ be the holidays-"

Chase suddenly cleared his throat.

" Does anybody know who _Kairi_ is?"

**Author's Endnote:** Bet you didn't see that coming! Yes, House, M.D. is a cameo in this AU and will make constant, erratic appearances throughout. This is how much I love the show. I hope this chapter, in general, was okay. I'm not sure about the direction of it, except that it gives one an idea of how brutal Sora's life is. Now…about _Rain of Sorrows…_ Long reviews and questions are welcome. Please review!


	7. Deep Blue

**Author's Note:** Omigosh, I updated _Best Deceptions_ at last! Celebrate! This is my holiday gift to you readers! I'm so sorry for making you wait. For anyone who also reads my epic _Secrets of Memories_ there is a forums available on my Bio page for you to check out. Just saying…enjoy this chapter. Cheers!

**Copyrights**: All characters belong to Square-Enix and Disney, with references to a show owned by Fox11. The three songs here are " So Long to Astoria" and "Hello and Goodbye" by The Ataris, who rock to the death, and " All the Small Things" by Blink-182, who also rock to the max! Rock on!

**Best Deceptions**

**Deep Blue**

Winter near tropical islands was probably the best thing in the world. Aside from the occasional blustery breeze, the weather was cool and fairly decent. It rained on and off but never snowed. Some kids who had never seen snow often wished it but who had ever heard of snow on a tropical island?

Most people spend their winters on or near the beach. The hotels, motels, inns, resorts, and beach houses-for-rent near the beaches – or on the beaches, in the case of the beach houses – often hiked up their prices in anticipation of the vacationers from throughout the city and the suburban, and they never failed to make triple the profit of the rest of the year in those three weeks. And Christmas Eve, and Day, well, there was a huge celebration right there. Partygoers to the max.

But what these places, and the people who do go the beach, neglect is the fact that they were not the only ones in the world. What does that mean? Simply put, they have money. Every person on the beach during the winter has the money to stay there for a few days to three weeks, and they fail to remember there are those without money…or time.

If people think Christmas was a time for people to rejoice, they were wrong. Dead wrong.

""

" It was the first snow of the season…I can see you breathing…middle of the empty street…still see myself in that lonesome bedroom…playing my guitar…hope for a better future…"

Sora sighed as he continued to hum and strum the guitar. He stared out, down the hill to the big black street, and the rickety plain house across from the hill, as well a the houses on either side. He then shifted the guitar in his lap and finished the song in silence. He was surprised he even had the energy to play the guitar after everything he did earlier in the day.

Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker had actually gone on vacation. Unbelievable.

" _If I see one speck of dust, one wrinkle on a blanket, one mothball, you are dead," Aunt Spiker hissed while Aunt Sponge snapped her fingers for Sora to carry the last of the luggage down to the waiting taxi._

" _It's not like I'm going to do anything," he muttered as he started lugging them out the door._

" _Don't talk back to me, you ungrateful creature!" the bony woman snapped, slapping him across the face. " Just do it!"_

And within minutes, they were gone for their three-week-long cruise. Sora had the whole house to himself. Not that he did much, though. He shuffled around, dusting, mopping, cleaning up after himself, then sat in the living room, boring himself with a television that lacked what others called 'cable', or strumming the guitar Cid gave him.

" I wonder how the others are doing…" he sighed as he looked at his watch. Three in the afternoon and he desperately wanted to see his friends. Spending Christmas home alone with no gifts, no friends, no family, and a can of soup for dinner just sapped him of the so-called holiday spirits.

In short, Sora was miserable.

Sighing, he put his headphones on, pressed PLAY, and listened for a minute or so before he started playing the song.

"…

It was the first snow of the season.  
I can almost see you breathing in the middle of that empty street.  
Sometimes I still see myself in that lonesome bedroom,  
Playing my guitar and singing songs of hope for a better future.

Life is only as good as the memories we make,  
And I'm taking back what belongs to me.  
Polaroids of classrooms unattended,  
These relics of remembrance are just like shipwrecks,  
Only they're gone faster than the smell after it rains.

Last night when everyone was sleeping  
I drifted by your neighborhood and resurrected memories from ashes.

We said that we would never fit in,  
When we were really just like them.  
Does rebellion ever make a difference?

Life is only as good as the memories we make,  
And I'm taking back what belongs to me.  
Polaroids of classrooms unattended,  
These relics of remembrance are just like shipwrecks,  
Only they're gone faster than the smell after it rains.

So long Astoria, I found a map to buried treasure.  
And even if we come home empty handed we'll still have our stories  
Of battle scars, pirate ships, and wounded hearts,  
Broken bones, and all the best of friendships.

And when this hourglass filtered out its final grain of sand  
I raise my glass to the memories we had.  
This is my wish, and I'm taking it back,  
I'm taking 'em all back.

…"

He FORWARDED through the mixed CD, then started playing again.

" So long my friend…don't say goodbye…just give me one last kiss…underneath this glowing sky…"

He looked up at the blue sky, wondered what his best friend was doing.

_You could just say you love her…_

" I don't," Sora whispered at the mocking words. " She's my best friend. It can't happen. It can never happen. I don't need love. This is…this is good enough for me."

The song kept playing.

" And every night I'm all alone…in some burnout highway town…I'll be thinking of the day that I met you…"

_Is it? Mom, Dad, since when did my life ever get so miserable?_

His pathetic existence had been so normal, so regular, but somehow things changed. He couldn't figure out why, could not understand why. But did it have something to do with the growing emptiness, the widening gap in his heart?

_Listen, there is no point in subjecting yourself to further abuse. I don't care…you don't deserve it. I know who you are, and I know you don't deserve to live this way._

" This is the life I chose…and this is how I'll live, no matter what. My friends, I treasure the most…and I won't leave it all behind. Never…"

He stared off into the blue sky, his guitar strumming to the last notes of the song.

_Kireina aozora no shita de…_

" Sora!"

His thoughts shattered, scattered. He nearly fell over, but steadied himself for the sake of Cid's guitar. He slowly stood up, peered down the hill, hoping and fearing.

" Sora, since when did you start playing the guitar?"

His heart quickened. Sora jumped off the porch, carefully placed the guitar down on the porch flooring, then quickly made his way downhill.

_How_-

" Hey, Sora."

" Hey, Kairi," he smiled as he came to a stop on his side of the fence surrounding the hill. "What are you doing back home so early?"

She didn't even seem to pay attention to his question. Her violet-blue eyes seemed to be skimming over him, making him want to sink into the ground with embarrassment. Instead, he put on a blank façade, and asked casually, " What?"

" Where were you?" she asked, leaning on the fence posts with the chipped painting, and staring at him eye-to-eye. " Where were you two weeks ago?"

This time it was Sora who didn't hear her question; he was busy staring at the small necklace around her neck. The tiny jewel paopu fruit pendent gleamed in the afternoon glow, dangled from the fine white gold chain. He whispered, didn't even know what he was saying, " You're wearing it."

" Huh? Oh…" Kairi looked down at her necklace and fingered it. " Yeah…it's beautiful, Sora. Thanks."

They were silent for a few minutes, as Sora stared at his hands, trying to figure out the best way to breach the topic. " I, uh…I missed the last three days of school because, um….Kairi?"

" What?" she asked, biting her lip as he grew more and more hesitant. He didn't really want to relive the painful experience but she had to knew, right?

" Just, just don't freak out, okay? Because…I got sick, I got really sick. I tried to make it to the restrooms…but I didn't. I kind of fainted in the middle of the h-hall, and…um…threw up…blood-" he faltered, then fell silent as he watched Kairi grow impossibly pale.

" You mean…the ambulance…"

" They had to take me to the hospital," Sora continued quietly, now averting his eyes to try and finish the painful story. He jammed his hands in his pockets and shifted continuously from foot to foot. " They said…the doctors…they said I had a bleeding ulcer…so I had to stay at the hospital for a while…"

He risked a glance at Kairi and jolted at the look on her face. He couldn't tell if she was going to freak, scream, or faint. " Kairi? Kairi, are you alright?"

" Bleeding…ulcer?" she said, her voice shaking. " You had a bleeding ulcer? Oh my god…"

" Kairi? Kairi!" Sora reached to his right, yanked open the gate, and rushed outside to her side. Its okay, Kairi. I'm okay, I'm fine. They fixed me up. I'm okay now-"

" Sora, you lazy bum!" Kairi shouted, throwing her arms around him. " You know how crazy I was when you didn't show up in Lambeau's? I was carrying around your backpack the whole day! And when you didn't show up on Thursday and Friday either, I was going mad! Don't-don't do that!"

Initially shocked, Sora slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close while she vented at him for his disappearing act. There had been friendly embraces, killer bear hugs, near-death chokeholds, head-knocking, elaborate childish secret handshakes, but he found himself pulling her even closer to him, closer than he ever dared to. Feeling her against him sent a thrill up his spine and it took everything in his willpower not to pull her even closer or push her away in disgust at himself.

Presently she calmed down and he felt the tension leave her. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and sighed. " How was your vacation so far?"

He felt compelled to whisper. " Aunts left town. One of them got a raise…so they went off on a three-week cruise. Have the whole house to myself."

" You spent Christmas home alone?" Kairi asked. She sounded surprised.

" It doesn't matter," Sora shrugged. " It didn't bother me. I don't really care for holidays anyways."

He tried to sound indifferent but truth was, he was very lonely. Sitting there on the couch, staring at the Channel 2 ads while eating from a can of chicken noodle soup, freezing half his ass off, with no friends or family around him, was not his kind of holiday. He wouldn't have minded if his aunts were there, even. He might have given anything, everything, to have someone with him when Christmas came around.

And sounding indifferent about it afterwards didn't help. Kairi knew him.

" You _love_ holidays. And birthdays. You love big events not involving school and having lots of presents. What are you talking about?" Kairi asked, pulling her head back from his shoulder to study him. " Since when did you not care about a holiday as big as Christmas?"

" I…ah…um…that's a good question…"

His voice died away as they stood there, staring at each other, her questioning his peculiar behavior and hi wondering why she wasn't at the beach – wait a minute.

" Kairi?"

" Yeah?"

" Why are you home so early?"

" Oh…" Kairi started giggling. " Don't you ever watch the news?"

" No. As you just saw, I have a guitar. Cid gave me it, the guy at AVALANCHE. Why?" _And the television doesn't have cable anyways…_

" Well…" Kairi sighed, then took a deep breath. " How about the porch? It's a really complicated and very long story."

" Um…" Sora looked up the hill to the house. She had never been inside his aunts' house, and the gods only know what she would find out if she did go in. " Do we have to?"

" Why?" Kairi cocked her head to the side. " C'mon, my feet are killing me."

" Did you go take a hike or something?"

" Well, yeah," she admitted, smiling at his correct assumption. " What do you think? I was bored. I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Then I heard someone playing a guitar and singing so I decided to see who that was. You know, you sing pretty god. Who taught you to sing? I never heard you singing before…except at those birthday parties years ago."

" Me sing good? Heh, that's pretty funny," Sora laughed, turning red with embarrassment. " Okay, fine, we'll go to the porch. But only the porch. My house isn't all that…impressive. Or clean."

He let her go, then turned and opened the gate. His fingers lingered on the gate until he was sure she'd catch it before it swung back, and slowly led the way up the hill. He was silent, or rather, he was silently fighting with himself. Sora felt so utterly confused and angry at his odd reaction to everything Kairi did.

_We're friends, just friends! Isn't that it? Isn't it that simple? But…but why does it seem…so wrong?_

" Your house looks really lopsided," Kairi spoke up as they neared the house and the dead peach tree in front. " Maybe it's that tower on the left…"

Sora tilted his head up, eyed the tiny windows around that tower. " Yeah, I guess…"

_That's my room…_

The porch was bare, except for two whitewashed rocking chairs, and a coffee table sitting between them, holding up a shriveled potted plant. Sora didn't even look at the chairs, though Kairi stared at them with curiosity and hope. But he had developed the habit of staying at least three feet away from anything his aunt owned; they've done enough to teach him to keep his "dirty hands" off their possessions. Instead, Sora sat on the floor of the porch and picked up the guitar again. Kairi slowly sat down next to him and stared at the guitar the entire time.

" So…what happened at the beach?" Sora asked casually, focusing intensely on tweaking the guitar strings. He didn't trust himself to look at his best friend. He wasn't even sure if he could call her his best friend anymore, not with the way he kept reacting to her.

" Huh?"

" Uh…you're not phasing out, are you?" he joked. Kairi was often the one to berate him for daydreaming in class and this was his chance to pay back. " Hypocrite. And I thought I was bad…"

_Karsokoff's Syndrome. Damaged brain through insufficient diet. Inability to write new memories…okay, I was worse off._

" Oh…" Kairi laughed rather nervously. " Well…on Christmas, we met the others down at the beach in front of Riku's house. Yuna and her guardian just came the day before. Riku and I had this huge party planned out…a lot of houses in his neighborhood were doing the same thing. Halfway through the party, I was looking for Riku. Kind of lost him…"

" How do you lose a guy with silver hair?" Sora couldn't help but snort.

" Oh shut up," Kairi retorted, playfully socking his shoulder. " I found him anyways. He was talking to Naminé, though-"

" Naminé? Why?" Sora found it baffling. Since when did those two start talking?

" I don't know. She was sitting in the sand, drawing as usual. Riku was kneeling down next to her, talking. I couldn't hear them because the ocean was really noisy and there were the seagulls and the parties up and down the beach…but he looked so intense. I wonder what they were talking about…"

Awkward silence. Sora shifted slightly, growing more and more uncomfortable. " What if he's…um…what if…"

" Naminé likes you," Kairi blurted out. " And Riku's not an idiot. So no, that's not it. Never it. I think they were scheming, though…knowing Riku and his friends, I think he was plotting something…"

Sora stared at her, his jaw unhinging. " Naminé _likes_ me?"

" Oh c'mon, Sora, are you that big of a blockhead? She like stares at you all the time! At least during nutrition and lunch. Then there was that drawing…"

" Oh yeah…" Sora laughed nervously, scratching his head. " You just had to remind me…"

" Well, whatever those two were plotting, nothing came out of it. The next thing I knew, people were screaming. Something happened in the water."

" What happened?" Sora asked, completely engrossed in the story and the way the winter breeze fingered her long red hair. He blinked, then shook his head, trying to get rid of the image.

" Shark attack. It was a great white. It was going after one of those surfer people. You remember Yuna's cousin Rikku? The girl with the braids and that hyper attitude?"

" What, like Selphie and Yuffie?"

" Yeah the shark was going after her brother, Brother, and-"

" Wait, say that again."

" Say what?"

" Rikku's brother."

" Yeah, Brother."

" No, I mean, what's his name?"

" Brother!"

" No, not that! I mean, his real name _can't_ be Brother, so what's Rikku's brother's real name?"

" His name _is_ Brother. I'm serious!"

Sora stared at her, at the desperate look on her face as she tried to convince him that Yuna's cousin's brother's name was Brother. The situation just seemed so comical to him that he burst out laughing.

" Oh brother…" Kairi sighed but she still smiled.

Once he stopped laughing, he asked, " So what happened to him?"

" Nothing much. A family friend Gippal hauled him out of the waters but his surfboard was gone. Then Rikku was all over him for saving her brother; she wanted to know why he would do such a stupid thing. I wasn't sure if she was joking about it, if she was grateful, or if she really wanted him to die."

" Hm…"

Kairi sighed. " So the parties all got canceled 'cause of the great white shark. There was nothing to do…so I told Riku I was going back home. He sounded pretty disappointed…"

" Then why didn't you stick out the rest of vacation with him?" Sora could sense there was something wrong.

" Well…I don't know. I love him and all…but he's been acting a bit weird. To be honest, it's something other than trying to get his hands inside my pants. He's been wanting to take our relationship a bit further but I kept saying " No." Maybe that's one of the reasons why…"

" And what about those bruises he keeps giving you?" Sora was blanching at the thought of Riku getting far too intimate with his best friend but he couldn't help but remember the bruises he saw on her arm.

" Accidents," Kairi replied instantly. " You run into things and if they don't cut you, they bruise you. And Riku is a bit strong…I should tell him that, huh? What do you think?"

" Probably," Sora sighed as he plucked at the strings on his guitar. " Kairi, be careful, okay? Riku's older than us; he knows things that we don't know…and things we don't want to know…"

He recalled with convenience the piles of _Maxim_ magazines under his bed. And when Riku suggested porn the last time he was over, well, Sora hasn't been to his house since.

" I'm being careful," she insisted. " You sound like Mom….but I don't think she likes Riku anymore…"

" Why?"

" Oh, she saw me kissing him. I don't think she liked the way we were doing it, though…"

Sora stared at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugged. " I don't know. And I don't care. Not anymore. I'll figure things out with Riku, okay? How's that?"

Sora nodded. " That's much better. Cheer up; its still vacation. Plenty of time to make things up and have fun."

Kairi smiled. She then looked up at the sky; it was darkening. " Wanna go inside?"

" What!"

" What? Something wrong?" she asked curiously.

" No…no, not at all," Sora replied hastily. " But…I don't have anything to eat…"

" We could always order take-out, right?"

" Yeah, but I'm broke…"

She threw her hands up in exasperation. " Oh Sora, you're so hopeless. Okay, fine, I'll order some Chinese carryout. You owe me, though."

" Awesome. Now I owe money to my best friend."

" I hope that was sarcastic."

" Me, too."

Kairi laughed as she shoved him aside. " You lazy bum, just go get a job! I can't believe my best friend's so lazy…"

Sora chuckled. " Yeah, me, too."

" Are you calling me lazy?"

" Well, remember back in middle school, when we had projects in each class and-"

Kairi stuck her tongue out at him. " Fine. I'm gonna go order…wait, what's the address?"

''

" Do you know today's New Year's Eve?" Kairi yawned as Sora dumped the cartons of rice, stir fry, orange chicken, and Mongolian beef in the trashcan in the kitchen. He walked back into the living room, not realizing he wasn't twitching at the creaking of the boards under his feet for the first time since forever.

" And since when did I start keeping track of the days?" he pointed out as he sat down on the couch next to her. She was busy flipping through the channels on the miserable small television in front and finding nothing to watch.

Sora sometimes wondered why his aunts had a television in the first place. It's not like they ever watch it…except when Aunt Sponge was the only aunt home. She seemed to have some strange fondness for the ads on Channel 2. He never questioned her, though; when he was small, he asked why she watched such boring stuff. He had gone to school the next day with a limp and refused to answer when people asked about it.

" Who can live without cable?" she complained as she finally gave up and pressed on the red button. The television screen vanished and she looked at him. " How do you live like this?"

" Spartan lifestyle can really get you going," he offered. " If I had cable, I wouldn't be learning how to play the guitar, would I? I'd be sitting here watching other people play and wishing I could play like them, too."

She looked thoughtful as she carefully weighed his answer. Then she grinned. " Play something."

" What?"

" I don't know…you know any Blink-182 songs?"

" I know that really famous one."

" What kind of answer is that! They have a lot of famous ones!"

Sora sighed. He then reached over and picked up his guitar. " This one."

He strummed a few strings and a smile grew on her face. " _That_ one. Wait, how'd you know how to play the song?"

" I listen to it a couple of times and try to imagine how it sounds like…well, I don't know. I just play it. It's really hard to explain…"

Kairi stared at him like he was a complete stranger. " How come I never knew this."

Sora shrugged. " I didn't know either."

" But you live with this-this talent. How can you _not_ know?"

Sora contemplated the question for a few minutes. " Well…Cid at AVALANCHE started teaching me. Then he gave me one of his guitars a few weeks ago. I've been practicing ever since…but I didn't think it would be a talent…"

" Typical of a Sora," Kairi said, rolling her eyes. " Well…since you lack a karaoke machine – I mean, you don't even have _cable_ and carryout seems to be nonexistent when it comes to your address, after all that the guy on the phone said about delivering to a house that never ordered carryout for twenty-plus years– I say you play the guitar and we sing some silly songs."

" Uh…" Sora stared at her. " And your parents don't care where you are?"

" Oh, right before I ordered carryout I told my mom I was going to be at your house for a while. She said she trusts you completely so it doesn't matter."

" Your mom _trusts_ me?"

" Well…we have been friends forever…best friends, mind you, so I guess that could make some sense…"

Sora couldn't help but remember yet another part of the conversation he had with that weird Dr. House back at the hospital.

" _You could just say you love her-"_

" _I don't! We're best friends. _Friends!_ I may be a guy but guys do have friends who are girls. Adults, always thinking there's some chemistry between a guy and a girl when they could be just _friends_! Besides, she's already got a boyfriend."_

" _Hm…you didn't have to add in that last part. But I'll leave you to think on it. Enjoy sitting there wondering at the cruelties of life. Tootles."_

" Sora? Sora? Yoo hoo, Sora!"

A hand waved in front of his face and he jumped, yelping along the way.

" Daydreaming as usual, were you?" Kairi laughed as he came to. " C'mon, play that song!"

Sora sighed, smiled at her. " Sure, why not."

His fingers strummed over the strings.

"…

All the small things

True care, truth brings

I'll take one lift

Your ride, best trip

Always, I know

You'll be at my show

Watching, waiting

Commiserating

Say it ain't so, I will not go

Turn the lights off, carry me home

Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na

Late night, come home

Work sucks, I know

She left me roses by the stairs

Surprises let me know she cares

Say it ain't so, I will not go

Turn the lights off, carry me home

Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na  
Na na na na na na na na na na

Say it ain't so, I will not go

Turn the lights off, carry me home

Keep your head still, I'll be your thrill

The night will go on, my little windmill

Say it ain't so, I will not go (na na na na na na na na na na)  
Turn the lights off, carry me home (na na na na na na na na na na)  
Keep your head still, I'll be your thrill (na na na na na na na na na na)  
The night will go on, the night will go on (na na na na na na na na na na)  
My little windmill

…"

""

Nights during the winter was chilly. No matter where you were the nights were going to be colder in the winter than during the summer. And mornings were absolutely freezing.

Sora had never felt so warm. In all his years the heaters were only used when his aunts were around. They were portable little metal things, sending out great gusts of comforting heat in the winter chill. At night they would carry them to their rooms and left them on to chase away the cold. He was left in the high room in the tower shivering under his blankets, driving away the cold only when his body tired and his eyes slowly closed.

But come to think of it, he wasn't even in his room. The last thing he remembered was sitting on the couch, counting down the seconds to New Year's Day, his best friend drowsily humming the Batman and Robin edition of "Jingle Bells" as she lay her head on his shoulder. And then…nothing. Nothing until now.

Sora slowly opened his eyes, found himself staring up at the plain white ceiling. His eyes studied the cobwebs and the lone black widow in the corner; he didn't dare bother her. After the ordeal he went through with the three other black widows he found in Aunt Sponge's room, he didn't want to deal with the likes of such a spider again. But he did have to get rid of the cobwebs. If his aunts ever thought about leaning back in the couch and staring up at the ceiling, they would definitely notice the neglect.

Warm air brushed against his right ear at regular intervals and he slowly craned his head to see Kairi sleeping peacefully, her head resting on his shoulder. He smiled, was happy he wasn't alone this New Year's Day. He watched her for a few minutes, studying her in that same point of view he had that day so long ago in Mr. Lambeau's class…

_But slowly he found himself studying her for who she was, an auburn-haired teenager with intense, expressive violet-blue eyes and soft lips that always held a ready smile for him. Now she was biting her lip, as she always did, but he never really noticed it before, especially not in the way he was seeing it now-_

Sora, what are you doing? Get a grip; she's your best friend! You do NOT check out your best friend!

_The brunet frowned. Yes, something was wrong with his head. Where were all these thoughts coming from? And why didn't he like the direction they were headed?_

His eyes refused to leave her delicate mouth, as his mind with its rigid righteousness berated him for attempting to commit such heresy. Something fiery and intense was overwhelming the furious voice, though, something he couldn't quite put his fingertips on-

She shifted slightly, murmured something. He froze, waited for a few seconds, but she didn't wake up. She then tightened her hold on his right hand and held it; he never noticed they were holding hands until her sudden movements. Sora felt himself go warm as he recalled with perfect clarity the distance between their hands in the last seconds before the clock read twelve. And here they were, Kairi having spent the night over at his house, sleeping on his shoulder and holding his hand, as intimate as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Sora leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes tightly. New Year's Day. His last chance to review the previous year before moving onward. All he recalled was his increased protectiveness over Kairi as Riku strove to push their relationship forward, the way he started to feel uncomfortable with Naminé's staring, Leon remaining indifferent to Rinoa's advances, Aerith trying to remain friends with Cloud who clearly saw her in a different light, Tidus acting like the idiot he was while Yuna tried to 'fix' him, Wakka and Lulu totally throwing off Selphie and Yuffie with their public display of mutual fondness for each other, Mickey's private talks about asking out Mina – which he never did – and Donald's private talks about Daisy, Goofy attempting to accomplish the dare the twins Chip and Dale pushed him into, his aunts' joy as they advanced at their jobs in the bank and the bakery, the teachers of last year and the teachers of this year, the antics of several of the students his class, chief among them being Jack Skellington and Axel Dante, and his little episode with the odd team of doctors at that one hospital…which all led to his changing attitude towards Kairi.

Sora frowned. That was just wrong.

He turned his head to her again. She was mumbling, whispering in her sleep. He wanted so desperately to hear what she was saying but he dared not; it wasn't just that he might wake her but he was afraid of himself now, deathly afraid. More afraid than of his aunts.

His eyes roamed over her face, then drifted to her lips again. Inwardly he grimaced, attempted to scold him again, but he, without even realizing it, was leaning forward, until their faces were barely two inches apart. Maybe it was his shallow breathing that finally made her stir, for she stopped whispering and opened her eyes.

Blue stared into blue.

" Uh…Sora? What are you doing?"

He jerked back, tried to hide it all away with a nervous laugh. " Um…wondering when you were going to wake up…."

She smiled. " If that's your way of waking people up, I'd be worried."

He grinned with embarrassment. " Sorry. But hey, it's New Year's Day so-"

" It is?"

" Uh…its morning. I think you told me it was New Year's Eve yesterday. Please don't tell me it was all a prank. I did say I don't keep track of the days."

" It's not a prank…why would I prank you? I mean, its New Year's Day!"

Sora groaned, knew this was going nowhere. " Never mind…"

He promptly released her hand and leaned back, sighing and silently cursing himself. " Wouldn't your mom say something about this?"

" What are you talking about?" Kairi asked as she shifted to make herself more comfortable.

" You slept over at a _guy_'s house. You know how things are with people our age. At least I do…wait, forget what I said. But what I'm saying is…your parents are definitely not going to be sitting around doing nothing when you come home saying you just slept over at a guy's house."

" Yeah, but you're my _best_ friend. My parents know that for a fact. They trust you completely."

" Really? Are you sure?"

He could feel Kairi staring at him. " What are you suggesting?"

" I'm not suggesting anything! I'm just worried. If someone sees you…"

" Nobody's going to be up this early so relax, Sora."

" I'm trying…"

Suddenly he found himself enveloped in a hug. " You're so crazy! Relax; being my best friend is enough, isn't it? I didn't ask for a personal bodyguard for Christmas!"

_Being my best friend is enough, isn't it?_

That lone question rocketed through his mind and Sora shook his head slightly to rid himself of the nagging question. But another question resurfaced, one directed at him in the most unfriendly way.

_Why do you care?_

And Sora found himself answering it silently, as Kairi eased back and looked at him worriedly.

_Because she's my best friend. What do you expect?_

" Isn't it a bit too early to be daydreaming?"

Sora blinked, then looked at her. " Sorry."

She grinned, then stood up and stretched her limbs. " I'd better get back home anyways. Usually my parents and I do something big on New Year's Eve and Day. This was the first time I didn't spend those two days with my parents, did you know that?"

Sora thought for a minute. " Wait…wow, I didn't realize that. Yeah, you'd better get home. Knowing your mom, she'd be disappointed if you stuck around for the rest of the day."

She thought for a minute. " That's pretty true…hey, you wanna join us? We're going to the big festival they're having at the city. Remember; I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago."

Sora shook his head. " Sorry but I have to watch over this house. My aunts told me so…can't lose their trust now, can I?"

Kairi looked rather disappointed but she nodded anyways. " Okay then…"

He stood up and followed her to the door. He opened it to a blast of brisk cold morning air. " That…was unexpected."

Kairi laughed. " Apparently. See you around, Sora! Don't miss school, you hear me? I'll have you if you miss one more day!"

" I promise I won't get sick. There, my New Year's Resolution! How's that?"

She smiled. " Much better. Bye!"

She waved, then started down the path. Sora watched her, wishing she did stay. But he wasn't going to force it; in truth he did want her to go. He didn't know what was going on within him but he knew that she was the trigger…meaning it wasn't the best thing for her to stay around anymore.

But…it felt like he was trying to push her away. And he hated that feeling.

_I don't understand. What is this new year going to bring?_

His eyes scanned the glowing sky and the houses all around the lonely hill. The morning fog was drifting away and for a moment he thought he could smell salt. His thoughts fled to the blue house on the beach, and the last wisps of memories, memories of another life.

_Another year gone, the further away I go from home…whoever said thought up the saying 'home is where the heart is', is freaking right…and I hate it._

And suddenly he couldn't breathe. His eyes alighted on a lone figure down the hill, half-hidden amongst the morning mist and the other houses in the neighborhood. But as the minutes passed and Kairi passed out of sight, he became aware of who that was.

_Oh no…Tifa…_

Their eyes met. The junior then gave him a devious smile, turned around, and walked away. As she disappeared as well, a heavy weight dropped in him, made him want to sink into the ground.

_She knows…and if I know anything about her…she's going to have something to say about it. She won't be forgiving me anytime soon for what I said about Cloud, even if it was true._

An unpleasant memory came to mind, something he later came to regret. He couldn't understand why he could say such a horrid thing.

_Cloud likes someone._

Tifa had arsenal now. She was a friend of Riku and that was saying more than enough. Vengeance would be hers.

" Oh I just can't wait for school to come around," Sora said sarcastically as he closed the door.

**Author's Endnote:** I think the next chapter is going to be interesting. Focus will shift away from Sora and Kairi, instead settling on some of the other characters. As the story continues, you will see a few other chapters putting the spotlight on some of the other characters. Other triangles will rise, because that's part of life. While we focus on one certain person, other characters carry out lives and dramas of their own, and a few other chapters will open a window into their lives. I think many stories should be like that. Just saying. Please review; I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially since it's been forever since I updated this story. Thanks!


	8. Boys & Girls

**Author's Note:** I'm not sure what to make of this chapter. I honestly am not happy with it but this was the best way I could write and get the story to move forward. It's much more difficult for me to create situations in an AU/high school setting than in an…well, an epic setting so bear with me, people, even if you like the story.

**Copyrights:** All characters belong to Square-Enix and Disney except for Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who were created by Roald Dahl, and a few characters who really were made up by me. The storyline is mine.

**Best Deceptions**

**Boys & Girls**

Staring up at the ceiling, Sora sighed and tried to close his eyes. But it was no use; his eyes refused to close. Well, then again, it was very early morning and he was supposed to be up and making breakfast for his aunts. His body was already protesting his predicted predawn movements; he was so used to sleeping in late that he couldn't wake up the day after his aunts returned from vacation. That resulted in some very painful bruises and a cut on his face. That was also probably another reason why he couldn't budge from his bed; he was still sore from a beating that concerned a rather large black spider on the ceiling.

_I should've gotten rid of that spider when I had the chance! Why am I so stupid? Stupid Sora, stupid, stupid Sora. You've been living with them for how long and you _still_ don't know what they expect from you? You are going mad._

"I know," he retorted loudly and to no one. "Stop harassing me."

_Stupidity is not without its accomplices. Remember? Do you remember?_

Sora moaned and turned on his stomach. He then buried his face in his pillow and muttered something incoherent. Images were rushing through his head at a furious high brought on by the early morning buzzing in his mind but an image stood out starkly in his mind.

_He drew nearer, closer than he dared. She breathed slowly, easily, as though there was not a care in the world. How lucky she was, how blissful her life must be. How he wished he could have some of that…that bliss that he never had, never existed. If only…if only he could have a little bit…a little bit of the bliss…_

Sora screamed into his pillow, risking something from his aunts if they heard him. But the pillow, no matter the state and condition of the old, ragged, stuffed piece of nothing, shielded him and took in his abuse silently.

_Through the cold, gray morning fog her eyes tore into his very being, the gaze filled with calculating and hatred. He wanted to run but his feet were bolted to the porch floor. He tried to pull away and hide but it was too late; her eyes had burned themselves into his mind and had never left him since. _

And she would be waiting for him at school. With Riku.

Sora screamed again, venting into the pillow until the hot air trapped in the fabric forced him to sit up. He ignored the blast of frigid morning air as he stared down at the pillow. Two thirds of the way to the right there was a huge indentation where his face was pressed in. Sora glared at the spot, then snatched the pillow and tossed it aside forcefully.

"God_dammit_!"

He pounded both fists on the mattress and it creaked painfully in his ear. He remained in the crouched position, breathing hard. A slight pain lanced through his stomach, the last traces of the surgery that closed up the ulcer, but it was nothing compared to the wild pounding in his heart.

_Why can't I spend a single day with Kairi without panicking every ten seconds? Why did I…why did I do that? I…I almost _kissed_ her…_

Sora raised himself up and sat there on the heels of his feet, staring at the bare room but not taking any of it in. _What_ just went through his mind? Did he really…did he really think that? _Kiss_ Kairi?

"No way…" Sora muttered. "No freakin' way…"

And then there was Tifa, Riku's friend. What was she going to say? Would she fabricate something elaborate for Riku, a gossip piece about Sora hanging around Kairi way too often for nothing to be happening between them? Or would she do something worse: not tell Riku anything at all but give a scandalous earful to the whole high school?

"No…she-she can't…no way in hell…"

How he hated school.

""

"I don't care! You _will_ quit blitzball this semester! You hear me?"

Riku Shimomura glared into his green bell pepper and cheese omelet, barely touched and cooling off on his porcelain plate. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his mother wringing her hands, fretting silently with worry as the man at the head of the table continued to bluster something furious. It was the same argument every day since winter vacation began, the same shout fest at the breakfast table. Riku was growing tired of the battle of words but he wasn't legally an adult yet. He couldn't just pick himself up and leave the damn mansion he grew up in just like that. He'd love to get away from his father but his mother…

"Can't we…can't we please have some peace and quiet…for once…" Mrs. Shimomura mumbled feebly, quailing in the face of her husband's anger.

"Not until he gives up those damn sports! I told you one too many times NOT to take a sport in high school! You don't need sports!"

Riku opened his mouth to add in some snide comment but his father cut him off.

"Your grades are not what you were raised taught to get. You're even failing Spanish 3! It's only a bunch of memorizing and you can't even do that! Why? Your head's always stuck in that damn sport! One day the ball will hit you in the head so hard you will never wake up from the impact. Ever think of that?"

"I _know_ the risks, Dad," Riku shoved in quickly as his father took a quick breather. "And I remember you saying nothing about Mom signing the emergency card."

"I wasn't home when you gave it to your mother," Mr. Shimomura hissed dangerously. "You deliberately hid it from me!"

Riku pushed his plate back forcefully and glared at his father. One of the housemaids came and whisked away the plate but he ignored her completely. His cool blue eyes were trying to intimidate his father and he wasn't sure if it was working.

"Taike…please," Mrs. Shimomura begged. "Let him be for once. You know the boy's been into sports since his youth. You can't stop him from playing blitzball-"

"I wanted you to go to that university in Twilight Town; you know what I mean," Mr. Shimomura began heavily.

Riku sighed loudly. _Not_ again! Enough with his father's dreams! And he was late for school anyways, Riku stood up abruptly and shot his father a death glare. Mr. Shimomura froze, his mouth falling open in shock at the open defiance. The teenage boy looked down on his parents, his mouth twitching with a snarl.

"I've had it. Enough."

He kicked the chair back behind him and didn't flinch as it toppled to the side. He kicked it again and satisfaction flooded him as he heard something break off. His mother's face had turned white and his father's face was boiling over with fury.

"Good day."

Riku turned and quickly strode out of the dining hall, trying to work the smirking victory out of his face as he entered the main hall. He walked rapidly, his footsteps echoing on the marble floor. On a velvet couch near the double doors he snatched up his backpack and swung it over his right shoulder as the doorman stationed at the front doors quickly grasped the gilt handles and pushed the doors open. The prim middle-aged man then stepped out of the way as Riku stormed through, his eyes masking the weariness of life with cold hard jade. His shoes dragged along the cobblestone driveway as he walked past the pond situated on the lawn and towards the gates.

"I'm getting sick of his shit…" Riku muttered as he walked up to the high stone wall and its two huge iron gates. One of them was connected to a smaller iron door and it was at that door he stopped. On the adjacent wall was a small black box; Riku flipped the top up and pressed his index finger against the silver inside. Seconds later the lock on the door was undone and Riku stepped out of his home.

Free at last.

Riku sighed, breathing in the fresh air of temporary freedom. He knew what to expect in the evening but he could care less; it felt good defying his father so abruptly. With that, he continued down the street, this time with more spring in his step.

But only two blocks from school he encountered Seifer and his two dogs-erm, lackeys, Rajin and Fujin.

"What now?" he demanded of the blond teenager.

"Well…something interesting's come up at school…just to let you know," Seifer said, tilting his head in the direction of Istara High School. "Thought I might give you a head's up about it."

"About what?" Riku really didn't like the sound of it and he was lacking the patience this morning to wait for Seifer to tease out the answer. "Spit it out!"

"Rumor…rumor has it," Seifer began slowly while Rajin and Fujin looked around warily, watching for any intruders, "that your girlfriend…and her best friend…are up to something. Behind your back. Someone noticed that she stayed over at her best friend's house on New Year's Eve. People are thinking she's cheating on you."

Riku stared at him. _I did not just hear that? A really shitty morning topped with really crappy news of some fucking rumor about Kairi and…what the fuck's this world coming to?_

"Not that it's true, y'know," Seifer added hastily when Riku's face remained stony and emotionless. "I mean, rumors are rumors but don't you think we need to do something about it? It's spreading all over the school. Who knows what could happen to our reputation if-"

"Where's Hamasaki?" Riku interrupted coldly. His voice was steely but so was his heart. Riku felt no anger but it was a heartless feeling, a frigid malice that matched the iciness in his eyes. "Where's the bastard?"

"We haven't seen him yet," Rajin offered. "We're watching for him, though."

Fujin nodded.

"Tell me when Hamasaki gets to Istara. I'm going to have a chat with my girlfriend."

Riku shouldered Seifer aside and walked with a steady gait towards the high school. His morning couldn't get any worse, could it?

"Fuck this shit, I'm going to get to the bottom of this…"

""

The moment he crossed the last intersection between him and the high school he knew he was in for a world of trouble.

People kept looking and pointing at him, at _him_. Since when did people start noticing him? As far as he can tell, only a handful of sophomores knew he was even a person. So when did freshmen, juniors, and seniors start staring at him?

"Sora!"

He looked up as Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, and Yuffie came bounding over to him all in a hurry. Sora froze as they surrounded him and shuffled him off to the far side of the school's front yard.

"What's going on?"

"Keep moving, keep moving," Tidus muttered. "We'll explain everything but for now, keep moving!"

Sora stumbled a bit but he found his balance again as they forged a path through curious students towards a secluded area near the teacher's parking lot. There they backed off to give him some breathing space. Yuffie looked around warily, her eyes leering. Sora wondered if it was part of being a ninja.

"Man, what did you do, ya?" Wakka asked abruptly, crossing his arms and giving Sora the eye.

"What did I do?" Sora echoed, not knowing what the hell Wakka was talking about. "What are you talking about?"

"Dude, there's this rumor going around school!" Tidus hissed. "I mean, what did you do?"

"What rumor? What are you talking about?" _Oh God, please let it be something really stupid and not about me and Kairi…_

"You shouldn't come to school today, Sora," Yuffie declared. "Nope, never. I mean, not today. Not yet. No, really, I mean it!"

Sora dropped his jaw. "What! Is it that bad?"

"It goes like this," Wakka began. "The whole school knows. Suddenly they know who we are! And people are talking. Lulu, she was listening but she didn't get much of what they were saying. Then Rinoa and Aerith barge in looking all shocked and scared shitless! I didn't know what was going on! They said something to Cloud and ran off again. And he was just standing there and we were all like, "What's going on, Cloud?" And when he told us…we knew we were all in big trouble."

"And _that's_ supposed to tell me something?"

"Dude…the rumors and you just don't match up," Tidus said, shaking his head. "It's like putting a baby in a microwave and-"

"Tidus, shut up," Yuffie said sternly. "Don't start rambling about how you're going to go online and look up something totally pointless, okay?"

"Cloud told us what the heck was going on, then ran off after the girls. It's really messed up but there's one thing Irvine said about you and the rumors that really don't add things up: you, my friend, are a lonely man."

Sora blinked. "Wakka, of all the things you say that never make sense that made the least sense of all."

"And I thought I was bad," Tidus muttered.

"No Tidus, you're just stupid," Yuffie replied sarcastically.

"No, what I'm getting at is that Sora _is_ a lonely guy," Wakka said, making mad hand gestures. "You know what I'm saying, ya?"

The other three teenagers shook their heads. Wakka grimaced, sighed harshly, then said, "You don't have a girlfriend, Sora, and we all know it."

Of all the reactions Sora could have thought up at the moment, blushing wasn't even on the list. But he flushed hotly and yelled, "What the heck!"

"And we know you're not the kind of person to be up to no good so we're wondering how in hell could there be a rumor going around that you and Kairi are…well…doing things behind Riku's back," Tidus blurted out again. This time Yuffie practically tackled him but it was too late. It was all out in the open.

"What? Kairi and I are doing _things_ behind Riku's back?" Sora repeated, absolutely flabbergasted. "How-how could there be a rumor like that? I mean…people don't even know I _exist_!"

"We know, man, we know," Wakka said sympathetically, clapping him on the shoulder. "But we think it's best if you avoid school today. Go hide somewhere else while we get to the bottom of this."

"Miss school? Again? Are you insane?"

"Well it was either we force you to ditch school or Riku does something that we're all going to regret later," Yuffie said solemnly in a most un-Yuffie-like fashion. "So ditch the school, for crying out loud, and hide! Go to the library or AVALANCHE or the beach! Skip school today and come back tomorrow!"

"Are you crazy?" Sora was shaken to the core but he really couldn't believe his friends were pressuring him into skipping school. "If I get caught out of school, I am so, so busted…"

_Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker will kill me for sure! I can't do this, no way-_

"You'll be worse off here," Tidus said calmly, which was not normal for Tidus himself. "Just today, Sora. Besides if Riku tries to jump you and if Kairi's there and she gets mad at him for beating the crap out of you, that kind of says something about the rumors, don't you think?"

Sora just shook his head and blew the bangs out of his face. "People just don't get the meaning of friendship, do they?"

"A guy and a girl equals a romantic relationship," Yuffie spoke in a high-pitched voice, just like Selphie. "People can't see people of the opposite sex as just _friends_. It's just impossible. Which is why you should seriously ditch."

Sora scowled. "I can't believe this…"

Somewhere in the distance the school bells began to ring. The first bell had rung and students were slowly migrating inside the walls surrounding the campus.

"Well, believe this: Riku won't hesitate to do something drastic if only to squash those rumors about the three of you. You know him, don't you Sora?"

"Yeah but…" and here Sora shook his head again. It suddenly seemed that for the first time he realized what was off about the whole situation. "…but this isn't at all like the Riku I know. When I was…when I was young, we were best friends. And then…I moved away. And now that we're back in high school…its totally different now. He's not the Riku I know."

He sighed and turned away. "Fine. I guess I'll hang out at the park. See you guys around."

Tidus, Wakka, and Yuffie backed away as the brunet began to walk through the parking lot, towards the far street corner that would take him one block closer to the city park. Then as one they turned and headed back towards their friends.

"So…want to raise that bet?" Tidus whispered.

"You guys really are going to bet?" Wakka demanded.

"Of course," Yuffie answered wickedly. "This is my chance to make some real money!"

"No, not that!" Wakka yelled. "I mean, the whole reason for betting-"

"Wakka, I've been talking about this since elementary school, remember?" Tidus interrupted abruptly, coming to a stop and holding up a hand to shut up his friend. "If it weren't for Riku, who knows what would've happened between the two. You know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, the fact that Yuna confides _everything_ in you," Yuffie said teasingly. While Tidus turned dark red, she continued, "She tells you every single thing on her mind because she trusts you so completely even though we know all men are stupid and think only with their-"

"I'm not dumb!" Wakka shouted. "And I do _not_ think with my dick, thanks!"

Yuffie cackled maniacally and ran ahead to scare the living daylights out of Selphie, who was several yards ahead of them and totally oblivious to the sound of rapid footsteps behind her. Tidus and Wakka sighed and shook their heads. Then Tidus looked at the redhead.

"Two things: one, I _don't_ like Yuna and two, this has been going on since fourth grade and if that rumor means anything, there's always a truth behind rumors and that means we're one step closer."

"Okay, I have two things to say, ya? One, you _do_ like Yuna and don't deny it, and two, it's been forever! It's never going to happen, man! I don't know about you but I think the rumor's only there 'cuz someone out there wants to get at Sora, ya? Or Kairi. Or Riku, come to think about it."

"I don't like Yuna!"

"Sure you do. You just don't accept it."

"Shut up."

"Yeah, sure, but what did you mean anyways when you said Yuna told you everything, man?"

"Oh that…it was during the end of fourth grade…and Yuna's been repeating it every year since. I thought it was girl talk but then Irvine said that Sora was a lonely man and that got me thinking…"

"What, that you're a lonely man, too?"

"Wakka!"

""

"Ah…what have we here? Miss Goody Two-Shoes One and Miss Goody Two-Shoes Two! How fun."

Yuna and Aerith froze up, their quiet but heated conversation dying at their lips. As one they turned to _them_ heading down the hall towards them. Larxene and her little cluster of girls.

There were preps. Then there were brats. And then there were some real bitches. Larxene's group consisted of a healthy mix of all three, with Larxene proudly declaring herself a real bitch. Nobody knew if it meant she was cruel or if she really did sleep with as many football players as people say she did. There were also two of Riku's own little gang: Lenne and Tifa.

Aerith carefully noted the unease with which Tifa carried herself. The black-haired teenager kept looking elsewhere, her eyes roaming everywhere. One of the girls snapped her gum at them and Lenne was grinning like the Cheshire Cat in _Alice in Wonderland_.

"What do you want with us, Larxene?" Yuna asked with a sigh. "Just barging through or staying for a chat?"

"Depends. We're here for some gossip, if you don't mind," the blonde senior smiled. She was notorious for posting all sorts of things on her blog online. "There's been some strange rumors going around, including whether or not our music teacher really did sleep with the football coach. But of course, there's the one we have today. And I want to ask you about that, since you seem to know the people more than we do."

"If it's that whole thing with Sora and Kairi, then-"

"For once the geniuses are on the same level as the rest of us! So, what's this whole deal between Sora and Kairi? Everyone knows they've been best friends since the fourth grade but of course guys can't stay best friends with girls long enough without thinking about getting into their pants-"

"You don't even know who Sora is, do you?" Aerith asked calmly, though her eyes never left Tifa. "So I'm guessing you're going to make stuff up and spread this rumor like you do with all your other little stories."

"Rumors are so boring if there's nothing _exciting_ about them," Larxene snorted. "So, have those two done anything behind Riku's back?"

"Are you suggesting that they had-" Yuna began loudly.

"Y'know, Yuna, this morning I was really bored so I posted something up on my blog. You might want to check it when you go home today. Who knows, maybe you'll finally do something about those godawful mismatched eyes of yours," the blonde teenager said.

Yuna colored furiously. "How dare you-"

"I was thinking about how you and that one idiot Seymour would make such a perfect rumor so I was going to put that up, too. Of course then I remembered reading an e-mail someone sent me about seeing Kairi leaving some house at like seven in the morning. It's one thing to go to a house at seven in the morning but another to leave the house that early. Obviously Kairi's been cheating on Riku or something along the lines because the house she left is where Hamasaki lives."

"Oh really?" Aerith asked, rather amused. "So you're the one spreading the rumor about Yuna's plastic surgery-"

"What!"

"What, you didn't hear?" Lenne questioned as she snapped her piece of gum. "Geniuses really are in their own little worlds aren't they?"

"And this lovely piece about Jack Skellington and his obsession with both Halloween and Christmas. That idiot, spending his money on decorating his house with plastic spiders and plastic Santa Claus idols. Why this school is so full of abnormalities I'll never understand," one of the other girls quipped from behind Larxene.

"And that one brown kid who missed the toilet when taking a crap-"

"And the black guy who stole a beer from some girl's backyard fridge-"

"And that guy who owns AVALANCHE who's also a closet pedophile-"

"And-"

"Just shut up, why don't you!" Yuna yelled as Larxene's clique of gossip hunters fell silent. "Why did I even bother to talk with you? What's wrong with me?"

"See, that's the funny thing about geniuses. They're smart but they're pretty stupid when it comes to people-"

"And then there are the dumb people, the stupid ones who aren't smart _and_ are pretty stupid when it comes to people," Aerith retorted. "I think I just made my point right there so why don't we-"

"And in case you haven't forgotten," Larxene interjected, "I'm a senior. I get to do whatever I want. And you're going to regret tussling with me. I suggest you stay away from school for the next few days, Aerith, because-"

"What the hell is going on here?" Cloud demanded as he suddenly materialized next to Aerith and Yuna. The blond teenager looked at Larxene, who was now frowning something awful.

"You look familiar…"

"C'mon, the bell's going to ring," Cloud muttered to the two sophomore girls. He avoided looking at Larxene and her clique. "Let's get out of here-"

"You're Zack's little brother, aren't you? The guy who got caught with the vodka?"

"The what?" Aerith demanded.

"Wait, you have a brother?" Yuna asked.

Cloud winced, then turned to Larxene. "Just shut up. I don't want to hear his name ever!"

"Why, because of all the shit he put you through-"

"I told you, you bitch, just shut up! I don't want to hear any of this so-"

"Why? Because Zack oh so proudly told us how he got you on pot?" Tifa suddenly spoke up, her voice high-pitched. "That drugs were the only way for you two brothers to bond or something? Hey Cloud, think about this: if you hadn't started smoking weed, your brother wouldn't have got shot looking for some-"

"SHUT UP!"

He chanced a look at Yuna and Aerith, hoping they didn't believe a word that the clique was saying. After all, they were infamous for the lies and rumors they spread through school newspapers, blogs, and cell phones. They were well known for making such a big deal out of stupid things, like Yuna and her plastic surgery. Unfortunately, all seniors knew about Zack. They knew who Zack was. They knew how Zack died.

Yuna was staring at him as though she was seeing him for the first time. There was a look of horror on her face. At once Cloud felt disgusted with himself, with the way he reacted to Larxene's mentioning his horrible relationship with his older brother. And Aerith…

One look at her face and he turned away. There were no words to describe the look; it was too painful to explain.

"I won't forgive you for this, Tifa. _Never_."

He jumped off the walkway onto the grass and quickly walked away into the masses of students flowing into the high school. All the girls stared after him, with most of the clique looking as astonished as Yuna. Tifa bit her lip, then turned around.

"I'm going."

With a sob, Aerith bolted, leaving Yuna, Larxene, and the rest of her clique in a very uncomfortable silence.

""

"Riku…I didn't _do_ anything. You've got to believe me. Please. Just…let go. It hurts, Riku, it hurts."

With a sigh he released his girlfriend's arm and turned away, avoiding the pained look on her face as she fingered the faint bruises forming on her forearm.

"I-I don't know what to say, Kairi," he admitted, rubbing his face with his hand. His other hand was clenched in a trembling fist. Gods, who the hell spread that stupid rumor anyways? He didn't know what to do; for once he felt as helpless as he did when he was much younger and at the mercy of his father's fury. "I don't know what to do. It's all…it's all just fucking confusing!"

"Riku…"Kairi said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Whoever spread those rumors meant to do harm. But you know better than that. I would never, ever do anything behind your back. Sora and I are only friends. There's nothing between us, nothing."

"But…" _Why do I have so many doubts? Why can't I trust her word?_ "Who the hell would come up with a rumor that sounds like _that_? It's a rumor that actually makes sense, a lot more sense actually than the one about that Yuna girl's plastic surgery-"

"Times are just getting stranger, aren't they?" Kairi asked softly as she hugged him from behind, leaning against his back and sighing. "You just…you just gotta hold on, Riku. Things will blow over and it'll all go back to normal."

"I hope so," Riku said softly as the second bell rang. Now more students were flooding the school halls, many slamming lockers shut and heading for their classes. "C'mon, we should get to our classes."

Kairi nodded and let him go. He turned around and hugged her tightly. Then he pulled back, kissed her, and began walking down the hall. People all around him were watching him carefully but an intense enough glare from him sent many of them hurrying to their classes. Riku smirked, feeling the power flood him.

_If only I had that kind of power at home…how different would life be?_

But if there was one thing Riku knew, it was that there's been a strange buzzing in the back of his head for a very long time now.

_Something's going to happen. And it's telling me I won't like it one bit._

And it had better not involve that Hamasaki kid.

**Author's Endnote:** Yeah…really weird. Anyways, expect the second chapter of _The Key to My Heart_ by Sunday. Next week will be the next chapter of _Kingdom Hearts: The End of Tomorrow_ and we'll see what happens from there. Thanks for reading and please review. I'm sorry it took forever to update. Oops.


	9. Evolution

**xxx OH MY GOD xxx **

Well, first I decided to take into consideration all the reviews I've been getting from people complaining that I haven't updated this story in like forever. I won't name any names and I won't say what kind of threats I've gotten but I've gotten a good pile of them and I've been nagged at by enough people to reconsider dumping this story on the sidelines in pursuit of my favorite pastime – Roxiri.

Heh heh, very funny.

The good news is, I think I'll continue. The bad news is, it'll take ages. One, I am missing a very important piece of paper that basically summarizes the next several chapters and THAT is always a bad thing. Two, I'm not much of a Sokairi fan anymore, although last night I found lots of evidence for my former obsession and One True Pairing. Three, I am currently taking this sociology class and I got very depressed about what we think of true love and/or marriage as juxtaposed to reality. It is VERY depressing and what a turn-off to all the things we write and dream of in our own little stories. So I'd better reconsider what the hell I'm writing and that could take a long time. Four, my laptop finally succumbed to a virus the day I was gonna post it so it's gonna take time as I have to now readjust to a new laptop with all its new quirks and yadda.

But that's enough of excuses.

Unfortunately, I probably know less about _Best Deceptions_ than those of you who bother to read it over and over again or are reading it for the very first time. So I'm guessing a lot of my information is off. Sorry.

And now-put that knife down, you over there. I _promise_ to continue!

**xxx Shall We Begin? xxx**

**Best Deceptions**

**Evolution**

It was a cold day and Sora hated it. Period. No wonder this morning was crappy. When it was cold, nobody was in a good mood. Including the people talking about stupid stuff behind his back. Or maybe it was just luck. Did he believe in luck? Not since the day he got dumped onto his aunts' porch with his meager belongings by Child Services, delivered to a nightmare of twelve years or somewhat.

This cold morning, though, woke him up. His mind seemed suddenly clarified.

Why did he tell that Dr. House he had nowhere to go? For years and years he could have just snuck out of the house, gone down to Cid's store, and dialed for Child Services. They would have taken him away, and he'll never have to deal with Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker again, right? So why didn't he go when he had the chance? There were so many chances, he thought, and he never took them. Not even one.

Why?

"Why?" he muttered under his breath, white steam trailing behind him. "Why didn't I just leave? Why, why, why, why?"

Sora sighed as he looked up and found himself in Fate Memorial Park. It was empty, though, except for a few people dressed head to toe in heavy layers. They were walking or jogging or on their way to work. Several of them gave him strange looks but he already knew why and decided not to bother himself with wondering. He was ditching school and the adults knew that, plain and simple. He wondered if any 'caring' person was going to call the police and report on a ditching student.

_No, the world's too apathetic. The world doesn't care if one more student misses out on a day of school. What does it matter to them? Why would they bother with someone like me? Why would they bother at all?_

Sora sighed, then shook his head as he headed deep into the park, towards the pond. He doubt there would be any ducks at this time of the year. They knew the seasons and the slightest drop in temperature would send them running. He wouldn't find Friar Tuck there. He would be left alone, to wander and dwell on his troubled thoughts.

But of course, Dr. House mentioned his ties to the people around him, the people who cared for him. People like Kairi.

"_I won't. Now, could you elaborate a little more? Who is this 'friend'?"_

"…_why do you care?"_

"_Because you make it obvious that you do."_

Dr. House knew something. He always did. Sora could tell; this man knew things about people that they themselves could never notice. His eyes and ears easily convinced him that Sora was hiding something…or denying it.

Sora didn't know what he was hiding. The doctor knew about his aunts, and that was the only thing he hid from his friends – his life at home. What else could he be hiding? And even if he was, why would Dr. House give a damn about his personal life?

He stomped his way through the cold grounds uphill, now extremely irritated. Why was he fussing so much over what some doctor at a hospital said? Most likely he'll never see that doctor again.

And those rumors, those damn rumors about him and Kairi-

Sora suddenly pressed his hand against his face and felt it extremely hot. He stared at the ground, embarrassed that he was flushing at the thought of those rumors. He made his way up to the highest hill and sank onto the cold hard soil. He stared at the landscape, the city the park was in the midst of.

"Didn't fancy seeing you here."

Sora froze, then whirled around to see one of House's doctors standing there a little ways beyond. He had a dark satchel slung over his right shoulder and under his left arm. There was a covered cup of hot liquid – presumably coffee – in his right hand and he was clutching a half-eaten sandwich in his other hand. He seemed to have been wandering the park eating breakfast before going to work.

"Coincidence," Sora muttered, turning away to stare elsewhere. Doctors! They were everywhere!

"Hey, why aren't you at school?" Footsteps approached through the cold hard ground and the dead grass.

"No reason," Sora answered casually. He knew in his mind that under normal circumstances he would be freaking but what else was he to say?

"Really?" the doctor stood next to him, took a bite of his sandwich. "I don't recall you being that sort of person-"

"You know nothing about me," Sora muttered. Resentment rose in his chest; he didn't want to be bothered but here was House's doctor, doing just that. "Why are you-"

"Hope you don't mind me asking," the doctor interrupted, now sitting down on the hill next to him. Sora leaned away. "Who's Kairi?"

_Kairi…Kairi, who's Kairi? Kairi is…_

He bit his lip. Why was the question so hard to answer? Kairi was his best friend. It was a cold sentence, a solid fact he's been repeating for years in the face of those who didn't have faith in opposite-sex friendships.

"Hello?" A hand waved in his face and Sora threw himself back in surprise.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"It's only a question but if you don't want to answer, I won't push you to," the blond man said.

"She's my best friend, all right?" Sora snapped. "Look, do we have to talk about this? I don't."

"Just curious. You were saying her name when you were sleeping so I had to ask," the doctor replied matter-of-factly and took a sip from his cup.

Sora stared at him, not believing his ears. _What_ did he say? "I-I don't talk in my sleep!"

"You wouldn't know that now, would you?" the man replied lightly. "You were sleeping; how would you know? What kind of dreams did you have while you were at the hospital?"

Now the doctor had to mention the hospital he works at. Sora glared daggers at him; he didn't want to remember that hospital at all, not the people who worked there or the reason why he was there. It was still a shock to him that he had an ulcer, of all things. The last time Sora checked up on ulcers, they were most common amongst middle-aged adults, not teenagers.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sora retorted and sat straight and looked away. Then he turned back. "Why are you asking me this? Why do you care anyways? Nobody asks people about this stuff so why should you?"

"I'm a doctor, Sora Hamasaki," the blond man answered quite calmly. "It's what I do."

"But about _this-_"

"You have to understand, Sora, that you're still our patient, even though you're out of the hospital. You've recovered remarkably fast from surgery, although you were supposed to stay in bed much longer than the few days you were with us before your aunts dragged you off, those lousy gits. We have your medical records and House pulled some other things we don't need to discuss, and for some reason he won't stop thinking about you. Now that's saying something. House never thinks that long about anybody. Until they're in the hospital, he doesn't care. Once they're out, he still doesn't care."

"Oh," was Sora's small reply. He knew enough of Dr. House to know that.

"Now, you want to know why I'm asking you those kinds of questions, especially those concerning your girlfriend, and I mean it as in _friend_, no strings attached," the man added with great haste, obviously trying to keep Sora from storming off.  
Being a doctor…is about making sure his or her patients are healthy. Most people think that if you're physically fine, you're healthy. Well, that's a lie. There's more to health than the body – the mental and the social. Research says people need to be fit physically, mentally, and socially. You're lacking in all areas."

"I do not!" Sora retorted. "I'm fine in every area, thanks!"

"You think I'd believe that crap?" the man snorted. "Your aunts will give you another ulcer within a month or two. That's probably why House went back to your case after he told all of us to obsessing over another minor case. He hates to see patients more than once. Means he didn't do his job of keeping people away."

"He's antisocial. Why not worry about him?" Sora asked crossly. The cold weather, he decided, prolonged his horrible mood.

"Do you like someone?" the man suddenly asked, totally bypassing Sora's question.

Sora opened his mouth for an angry retort, then closed his mouth and looked away. Maybe silence was the best answer. He couldn't think of any comeback good enough to stop this man's digging into his life story.

"I don't even know your name," he muttered. "Why do I even-"

"Name's Chase, Dr. Chase," the man input. "If you're not going to answer my question, let me give you another. Why aren't you in school? I thought it's illegal to ditch."

Sora sighed. "There's trouble I'm trying to avoid."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Rumors," he mumbled. Tifa's vengeful eyes burned in his mind. "There were some stupid rumors…and my friends told me not to go to school today. So I'll hang out here…until someone catches me or it's past three. I'd go to the friar but he'd have so many questions he'll overwhelm me."

"The friar?" Chase asked, apparently intrigued. "What's your relationship with a friar?"

"He's been my friend for as long as I can remember," Sora explained. "My aunts never stopped him from an occasional visit when I was young. I remember having to clean the house whenever he came over. Later I found out he was a friend of my parents; that was after my aunts stopped him from coming over so often."

"A father figure?" Chase questioned.

Sora shrugged. "Maybe."

"My father left me and my mother when I was a teenager. She died a few years later, drinking her life away," Chase said as he took another sip.

"At least you had parents," Sora muttered, now wholly depressed besides irritated to the point of angry.

"Well maybe that explains why you have a friar for a father figure and your best friend's a girl," Chase suggested cheerfully.

"I thought you were a doctor, not a psychiatrist," Sora said sourly. His stomach suddenly grumbled; Sora, out of habit, had forgotten breakfast today.

"Want the rest of my sandwich?" Chase offered, holding out the half-eaten sandwich. "You should eat, you know. One of the reasons why you ended up in the hospital was because you didn't eat enough."

Sora stared at the offering, then at Chase, then at the sandwich again. After a bit of hesitation, he took the sandwich and bit into it.

"Maybe you're right," Chase said while Sora sat and chewed through the sandwich. "Maybe House is overreacting about you. I shouldn't be asking those questions. It's so impersonal of me, but I just got so curious because you said her name while you were sleeping."

"Was I really?" he asked weakly, now starting to believe that was possible. He did have a few dreams with his best friend in it. He just couldn't remember exactly what the dream was about.

"I read some books on psychology a while back. Don't remember much of what I read because it was all so boring. That's probably why House picks on me. But it did say something about how children seek out surrogate mothers and fathers. And then I forgot."

"You think Kairi's like my mother?" Sora snorted. That was so ridiculous.

"Okay, so it sounds stupid, but it doesn't mean exactly as in an actual mother. More like…a female presence. You sure you don't like her?"

Sora fumed at the question, grappled at his hair. "Why do you keep asking me that? I told you 'No' enough times. Aren't you happy with that answer?"

"When I look at your face, when you answer, all I read is denial," Chase replied smoothly and calmly. "Denial, denial, denial. All over your face, Sora. I know it when I see it. And you're mad. That could mean several things. It could be that you hate my guts for bothering you with all these questions. It could be that you really are in denial and you really don't want to deal with what you really feel like. Or you're just annoyed and think all these questions a waste of time and that you're actually a closet bi or homosexual. Or…have you ever _really_ given thought, Sora? Ever really thought about your best friend?"

"Several times. Why?"

Chase studied him rather severely. Sora decided the man looked downright psychotic. Maybe he was a pedophile and he was cornering Sora for an attack. Who knows?

"What's your friend like? Kairi, what's she like? How does she look like?"

If Dr. Chase was a pedophile, he was one sick pedophile.

"She's got long red hair. It used to be short, and her bangs on the left side of her face, but she changed her hairstyle. Blue eyes, and a smile. She smiles a lot, even when she's troubled…her dad works for a gaming company. They make video games. Her mom owns a little store. Something like…Lily Boutique or something…"

"English word. Means the same thing as a shop," Chase explained.

"I guess…" Sora said with a nod.

"What's she like? Personality-wise? Why is she your best friend and not some dude? Why a girl, Sora?"

_This man is so damn persistent. Well then, I'll have to entertain him._

"Until near the end of elementary school," he began slowly, thinking hard on his old dusty memories, "I think it was fourth grade…I had no friends. Some people acted nice but they were not friends. I had no friends. And then she came along, in the beginning of fourth grade. She sat next to me on the first day…I ignored her. That's what I usually did to people. I ignore them. But she didn't ignore me. When the teacher asked who wanted to be helpers for the new students, including her, she asked if she could choose someone and chose me. I couldn't refuse. And…and that's how we became friends."

"Really? Interesting…" Traces in Chase's voice told Sora the doctor was very much interested in Sora's life story. "And ever since then you were best friends."

"In the eighth grade…I think it's the eighth grade…I'm not sure. It was a while back, in middle school, and Riku asked her out. She's had only one boyfriend so far, and that's him. Inseparable in their own way, really, except…"

He kept recalling the bruises on her arms and what she told him once. This was a Riku he hadn't ever imagined before. It still disgusted him.

"Except what?"

"He's not the perfect boyfriend, I think," Sora finally declared dejectedly, kicking at the ground while finishing the sandwich. "It's only my opinion, though, so I can't do anything about it. It's just…sometimes he just makes me mad, the way he treats her."

"Oh no, not another one of those stories…" Chase groaned. "It's like a soap drama. Have you ever seen those? God, Americans really overdo it."

"I don't watch television," was Sora's depressed reply. Then he repeated what Chase had just said in his mind. "You're not American?"

"Can't you hear my accent? House always calls me British. Something about putting the Queen on our money. I'm Australian. Dad's from the Czech area. Being an Australian…I can see things a lot of Americans deny, like obesity."

"Nobody denies they're fat if they really are fat," Sora countered. After all, that seemed logical. Although…Aunt Sponge never really… "Well…my aunt Sponge probably doesn't realize it…"

"Americans and fast food," Chase snorted.

"Kairi loves fast food," Sora blurted out, not really thinking but remembering the Chinese takeout she ordered New Year's Eve. "She's not fat."

"I know. That's the problem with Americans. If they can eat McDonald's and not gain ten pounds, they think they're special. It's not just fat, it's what's in the blood. That's why so many people get diabetes nowadays."

"Why don't you go tell her that? Wean her off Chinese takeout. She'll miss the orange chicken but if it's better for her health, she'll do it."

"Are you two really that close?" Chase asked, turning his body slightly to face Sora more directly. "Actually regulating each other's diets. You two ought to marry when you grow up."

Sora flushed at the mere suggestion. Flustered, he tried to think of a comeback but his mind had suddenly stopped its engine. He had run into a mental roadblock.

"There's a reason why I asked you so many questions, Sora," Chase remarked. "I wanted you to think about her. You obviously hold her differently from all the other possible friends you have out there-"

"I don't have imaginary friends," Sora muttered through clenched teeth.

"-and what you said about this 'Riku', well here's the soap drama part. In soaps, best friends who fret over the women also criticize their current boyfriends, have serious problems they hide from the world, and in lots of cases deny they're in love. I honestly think it's infatuation or obsession, but isn't that what love is? I prefer dating. It's far more interesting."

"I don't date," Sora said. "And she's got a boyfriend."

"You didn't have to point that out," Chase said cheerfully, now rising to his feet. There was a grating beeping noise coming from his pocket. "I've got to get going. Just don't tell her it's a date, more like…a little get-together between best friends. I always try and do that…Cameron never takes the bait…"

Sora turned to watch Chase wander off, muttering about someone named Cameron. Once the man was out of sight, Sora turned to stare at the dark chilly lake and pondered the whole point of his meeting Chase here. If it was some event that was supposed to take place in his destiny, it was a pointless, utterly stupid event. The conversation in which Chase persisted his friendship with Kairi was really a disguise for his love of her was bothersome as ever, not to mention quite similar to the interrogation he got from Dr. House.

House must have a way of rubbing off on people, especially those who work for him.

A date? Sora's never really been on a date, if at all. Even if he wanted to, and he didn't know who to go on it with, he never would be able to. His schedule was too demanding, especially since that pay raise made his aunts a bit more careless with things. He's been spending weeks cleaning the whole house each and every day, and it was exhausting him.

But a date? Why did he keep thinking about Chase's suggestion? Go on a date with Kairi? She's his best friend _and_ she's got a boyfriend, Riku. And Tidus and Wakka and Yuffie were right; Sora was a lonely man. It just wasn't in his nature to actually develop that sort of relationship with anyone. After all, it took him years to open up with the help of Kairi. Why…

_Well_, Sora sighed as he got to his feet as well and crumpled up the paper that wrapped up the sandwich in his hand, _if Kairi showed me how to make friends, she might as well show me how to go on a date. As long as she doesn't know that…and I'd better not think it that way, too. She's my best friend! These-these things just don't happen between best friends, even if it happens all the times in movies!_

He began the long walk to his house, knowing his aunts wouldn't be home for many hours. He had a stash of cash he had earned from AVALANCHE and he decided it was time to spend a bit of it, just a bit.

He'd spend it for no one else. Only for Kairi. That's how important she was to him. Maybe too important.

Chase's talk was getting to him.

""

"You okay?" was the first words out of Kairi's mouth as soon as he found her after school. She had her arms and hands pressed behind her back, under her purple backpack, and kept them there as she stared at him and tossed her head to the side a bit to move her bangs out of her right eye.

"Yeah," Sora muttered while scratching his head and looking at his shoes. "Yeah…I'm fine, I'm fine…"

"Who do you think saw me leaving your house?" she asked as she walked up to him and pushed at his shoulder with her finger, signaling him to start moving away from school, far, far away. He was happy to, very happy to.

"Well…I don't know," Sora admitted as they walked down the street to a signal. Almost immediately the WALK sign flashed and they crossed the street. "I don't know anyone who lives in my neighborhood who as a thing against me…or you."

"Hm…" as all Kairi said and they continued in silence to the mall. Sora watched her the whole way, saw a troubled look pass over her face, and wondered why she kept her arms hidden behind her back and under her backpack.

It was only later, just outside the mall, that he figured it out.

"Sora! What the hell!" Kairi exclaimed when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to a stop. She whirled on him, confused and angry, but paled as he held out her arm and pushed up the sleeve to study the small finger-sized bruises on her wrist.

There were a few people stopping to stare at her, pulled in by her startled outburst, but moved on. Sora waited until they resumed their businesses, then looked at Kairi, at the fear in her blue eyes.

"Why are you hiding this?" he asked sadly, letting her arm go. "Why?"

"I-I-" Words failed her as Sora turned away.

"Why, Kairi?" he whispered. His heart clenched tightly as he closed his eyes, saw the bruises on her arm. He tried to muster up a memory of Riku to wonder at in horror but he was perplexed when his mind instead brought up dusty recollections of his own bruises and scars by his aunts' hands.

"Sora, please," he heard her whisper, felt her hand on his shoulder. She tightened the grip, then he felt something press against his back. Her head. "Please…I-I can't back out of it, Sora. He…he really is all I've got."

_That's not true! You have me, Kairi, ME!_

"I…I can't break up with him," she murmured. "I've thought of it before, earlier in the school year, when you started asking me about the bruises and what Riku-what he's-what he's done…to me. You know I love you, Sora, but Riku's different. That's why…"

_First and only relationship_, Sora thought bitterly, now his heart hardening with fury. _This world is playing tricks on you. You're so blinded, Kairi. You only see Riku, think he's the one true love people always talk about with stars in their eyes. And no matter what he does to you, you won't let go because he's the only one who loves you in that way. Where do I fit, Kairi? Where do I fit in the equation? Can't you see me, can't you see who I am? I'm sorry I haven't shared all my secrets with you, but please, look at you, look at yourself. You don't deserve this! You. Don't. Deserve. This!_

"You don't deserve this," he whispered as he raised his arm and turned his wrist to touch her hand. "Kairi, you don't deserve this. Just tell him that. Ask him to-to treat you better. Please, Kairi, just do that. For-for my sake, just ask him…"

"Sora…" she began, then just let his name drift away.

"You're my best friend," he began with his 'best friend' speech, while his throat clenched and somewhere deep inside him something told him he was saying things wrong. "You're my best friend, Kairi. I-I can't _stand_ it when he does that to you. I can't. It hurts me, Kairi. It-it really does."

"Nothing's perfect, Sora. Not even relationships," she said.

Sora found her words strangely enigmatic. What did she mean by relationships?

"But you got to try," Sora replied as he pried her fingers off his shoulder; they were hurting him. He held onto her hand, though, while he turned around and looked at his best friend. Her head was bowed and her hand again tightened its grip, this time on his hand. He sighed, then pulled her into a hug. "Kairi, I don't want to see you hurt. Just…just talk to him, Kairi. Communicate."

"Heh…that's what people say about relationships," she said. She let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around his waist tightly. "Communicate…"

He found those words just as disturbing. What relationships?

_Communicate…there's something I want to tell you, something I need to tell you, something I should tell you…but I don't know what it is. It has nothing to do with my aunts, nothing to do with how I live with them, nothing to do with…I don't know. I don't know anymore. It's hopeless, it's all hopeless. I don't know anything anymore. But…I think there is one thing I do know. I…_

He froze. Kairi didn't seem to notice, was saying something about going inside the mall and getting some hot drinks. He only heard 'inside', 'coffee shop', and 'cappuchinos'. Then she broken the hug, had taken his arm, was leading him into the mall. Warm air hit his face as they left winter behind but all he did was blink at the sudden explosion of warmth as she pulled him along. They wove through people, made their way to one of the first-floor cafes, and she led him in. He stared at her, his mind unable to work itself, while she ordered two hot chocolates instead of cappuchinos and handed him his cup before paying the cashier. Then she was guiding him to a corner table inside, sat down and he followed suit, his mind still frozen. He was only able to respond in simple ways, saying, "Yeah", "Uh huh", or "Really?" Kairi was smiling and talking and sipping her hot chocolate, her complexion becoming rather rosy as the warm winter drink did its magic. He could feel it, the warmth curling around his mind and his heart and his soul but it was unable to penetrate and oil the frozen gears of his thoughts, still frozen on that train of thought he had outside.

"…try and ask him, okay? I promise, Sora. I'll try," she said, putting her cup down and taking his hand in both of hers. He gave a start, looked at her, at her sad smile, then copied it as he put down his cup, too, and placed his hand over hers.

"I trust you," he said quietly.

Kairi looked away, looked rosier than ever.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur. Sora didn't remember what happened between their leaving the café and his saying goodbye to her before trudging up the pathway up to the house. His aunts weren't home and for that he was thankful. He had only started doing the laundry when they came barging in, boisterous yet angry at the same time. He heard many words being thrown at each other but the most-used one was 'money'.

He peeked outside the laundry room and was met in the face by a flying handbag.

"You worthless rat, come here and get these coats off me!" Aunt Sponge snapped, snapping her fingers and pointing to a spot just before her. He didn't bother touching his now-tender face, picked up her handbag, and went over to get her coats off. Then Aunt Spiker snapped her fingers, too. She was a little more difficult, being so tall, but in the end, the coats were off and they were storming off to the kitchen to continue their arguments while he hung the coats and put their shoes and boots in order.

In the laundry room, he stood there, leaning against the ugly old washing machine. His mind was drifting away, ready to pry at where his thoughts froze.

_But…I think there is one thing that I do know. I-_

"You, boy!" Aunt Spiker was standing at the doorway. "Hurry up with the laundry. We're starving!"

"Yes, Aunt Spiker," was his mumbled reply as he hastily dumped in the rest of the dirty laundry. His face was hot but it had nothing to do with what he was doing nor where he was. He just couldn't believe what his mind was going to say, what his heart was saying all along. He realized it now. He had muted what his heart knew; that's why he couldn't understand why he felt the way he did whenever he was with Kairi, found out or heard what Riku's done to her, or when-when she was over at the house New Year's Eve.

It was an evolution of thought. It was a conclusion he didn't want to face. But clearly some knew he would come to it, sooner or later.

"Damn the doctors," he muttered while he walked out of the laundry room and nearly fell.

Dinner was but a hazy memory when he stumbled into bed, too tired to finish eating the leftovers from the pot roast he had bought for his aunts when he was sent to do grocery shopping a week ago. He lay on his bed, unmade because of his earlier thoughts that morning. And now his late-night thoughts were fluttering over his head, tormenting him.

"_It's only a question but if you don't want to answer, I won't push you to."_

"_She's my best friend, all right? Look, do we have to talk about this? I don't."_

"_Just curious. You were saying her name when you were sleeping so I had to ask."_

"_I-I don't talk in my sleep!"_

"_You wouldn't know that now, would you? You were sleeping; how would you know? What kind of dreams did you have while you were at the hospital?"_

"What kind of dreams?" he murmured, his eyes fixed on a black spot on the ceiling. A black widow.

"_You thin Kairi's like my mother?"_

"_Okay, so it sounds stupid, but it doesn't mean exactly as in an actual mother, More like…a female presence. You sure you don't like her?"_

"_Why do you keep asking me that? I told you 'No' enough times. Aren't you happy with that answer?"_

"_When I look at your face, when you answer, all I read is denial. Denial, denial, denial. All over your face, Sora. I know it when I see it. And you're mad. That could mean several things. It could be that you hate my guts for bothering you with all these questions. It could be that you really are in denial and you really don't want to deal with what you really feel like Or you're just annoyed and think all these questions are a waste of time and that you're actually a closet bi or homosexual. Or...have you ever really given thought, Sora? Ever really thought about your best friend?"_

"But in what sense?" he asked drowsily to the black widow. "What do you mean by that? As a friend? As a love? Platonic? Sexual? So many ways of saying what you're really trying to say…what is it? I know she's beautiful. People say it all the time but I've known from the very beginning. I don't mean it by appearance although in that aspect, she really is…beautiful. She's the kindest person I've ever met, kind and seemingly perfect, but flawed, too. She's human. She's not an ideal, not some goddess all the high school boys are after, not Riku's…she is, you see, but…today, I was thinking about what you were saying…"

The black widow scurried to a part of her web. It seemed a housefly had caught itself in it. He followed it to the fly, watched it kill.

"…and-and yeah, we went alone…to the mall. Usually we don't because we have so many friends between us but it was just the two of us…and-and Riku hurt her again. I as so disappointed with her. He's hurting her and she's doing nothing about it. I think…I think it's because she doesn't want to lose him, is scared to lose him. Who isn't? Sometimes I feel she's drifting away and I'm scared, too. I don't want to lose her. She's the best thing in the world, the very best person in my life. She said she loves me but as a friend. Friends love each other, you know. But…"

The black widow was eating the house fly. In the moonlight she was glossy black, huge. She was engorging herself on the hapless, doomed fly. In a sense, it was beyond doomed; it was dead. Stone dead.

"She doesn't want to lose Riku because he's the only love interest she's known of so far. But…I'm here, too. Maybe I was searching for someone, a 'female', someone who'd care for me like my aunts never did and my mother never could. I don't know why I'm her best friend sometimes. Now I don't know where I stand. She was blushing. I know she was. It wasn't the hot chocolate. Maybe she likes me? That's ridiculous. Boy I sound like a drunk…"

He turned his head, his eyes away from the black widow and the shrunken remains of the house fly. He curled up on his bed, sighed deeply. His head was swimming but he didn't feel sick. His heart was pounding but he hadn't been running.

"But I…you know, maybe you're right. Maybe I am in denial. Back at the mall, I was thinking about her, her and me. And I was thinking about how I didn't know anything anymore. Talking with Dr. House made me think about my aunts and why I live this way. My friends…school…I don't know. I really don't know anymore. But…but there is one thing I'm sure of. I couldn't understand it, maybe. Other people mentioned it, hinted at it, thought it was true. Even Tifa…back then, it wasn't. But…I think something changed."

He slowly pulled the blankets over him, curled even more tightly into a cocoon. He felt slightly uncomfortable because he didn't change but he didn't care. His mind was drifting away on a thought, a dreamy surreal impossible thought.

"I think…I think I love her. Yeah…Chase, you're right about me after all. After all these years…all this time…maybe that's why I almost kissed her. It's so stupid…but I guess love does that to you…"

His eyes closed and he drifted away into a dream he had once at a hospital some time ago, where it was just him and Kairi and it was paradise all around them.

And this time he kissed her.

**xxx Reviews! xxx**

So I didn't exactly get to read over what the hell I wrote. Oops. This is what I get for causing my laptop to crash. Oh dear, its my fault, boohoo, blame me.

So…now that several months have gone by, what do you think? Should I keep going? Should I just give up and go back to hunching over and laughing madly over my Roxiri Fanaticism? Or what?

Please, please, please, I need your opinions!

**xxx Should the Show Go On? xxx **


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